A crowd of about 4 thousand inside the gated parking lot and an undetermined number outside on the street heard Mitt Romney say, “This is our time.” 

“I’ve been watching some of President Obama’s rallies and they chant ‘4 more years.’  Today is 28 days before the election; I think the right chant for them ought to be ‘4 more weeks.”

Romney said he would not raise taxes on the small business, implying that President Obama would.  And like President Obama, he also knows that Ohioans are part of the new boom in natural gas drilling,

 “We’re going to take advantage  of our oil, our gas, our coal, our nuclear, out renewables.”

Another topic that has some resonance in Ohio,  sparked by Senate Bill 5,  is disfavor with public sector unions.  Romney called American public schools an embarrassment. 

"It’s also unfair to have our kids performing in the bottom third of the world.  I will make sure it’s time to put our kids and our parents and our teachers first and the  teachers union behind.”

But the topic Gov.Romney kept coming back to was shrinking government and cutting spending to balance the budget.   He said he would cut taxes for small business and not cut spending for the military though he offered no plan for raising revenue.  He was light on specifics on almost every topic but did spend time to talk about a boy with leukemia he ministered to and a Navy seal he once met, who died recently in Benghazi. 

His fans came from 50 miles in all directions and some from just across the street. They had a variety of reasons for backing their guy .  They included Kelly Allen of  Wooster, Mike Delfavaro of Lakewood,  Carol Doty of Louisville, Linda Hyden of Cuyahoga Falls, Dave Dureska of Canton.

A couple of the rare and sought-after undecided voters were in the audience.  Matt And Wendy Ross of Wadsworth supported George W. Bush, then Barack Obama, and after listening to Mitt Romney.   They’re still on the fence.