GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney took verbal swipes at President Obama, charging “he’s handed a mammoth debt to the next generation.”

Romney maintained that,  instead of cutting the debt in half, the president has doubled it. And he criticized the president for being too soft on Iran’s nuclear aspirations.

But Romney cannot go head-to-head with the president unless he can secure the Republican nomination. And Ohio may be key to that.

Despite Romney’s current lead in convention delegates, two recent polls show him trailing behind GOP hopeful, Rick Santorum, in Ohio. So in his speech in Columbus, Romney labeled all three of his Republican challengers, especially Santorum, as poor choices to turn around the economy.

“They don’t understand business and job creation and entrepreneurs and innovation like someone who spent 25 years doing that,” he said. “Rick Santorum’s a nice guy, but he’s an economic lightweight.”

Romney said little about social and moral issues in his speech and during a question and answer period.

That was left Mark Smith, a leader of  an Ohio Christian organization, to make the case that Romney is a social conservative, not just an economic conservative. Smith didn’t mention Santorum by name but hinted that even though the former Pennsylvania senator has garnered support from Christian evangelicals for his stands on abortion and gay marriage,  Romney is also conservative on social issues. He even likened Romney to former President Ronald Reagan.

Some in the crowd say the economy should be the top issue in the presidential campaigning. Lawyer Dan Watkins said that’s the top concern of American voters, and most people vote with their pocket books. Bill Philips echoed that thrust and criticized Santorum for stressing social issues.

Meanwhile, Mitt Romney’s words and a large banner, hung by his supporters, made it clear the former Massachusetts governor wants to hone in on the economy. The banner read, “More Jobs. Less Debt. Smaller Government.”

And Romney ended his speech by promising if he’s elected president, he’ll fix the economy, but it won’t be painless.

“It does not take a leader to promise free stuff. You see a lot of politicians out there calling themselves leaders and just promising lots and lots of free stuff paid for by someone else. I’m not going to do that. A leader is someone who is able to turn to the American people and ask them to sacrifice. And I’m going to ask you to sacrifice to live without some programs that we’ve gotten used to, or we’re about to get used to like Obamacare…We’re going to spend less money and make government smaller.”