Romney crowd in Ohio auto town welcomes promises of 'big change' Mitt Romney told a crowd in Defiance, Ohio, that he would 'reach across the aisle' to get the job done in Washington. Mitt Romney came to the battleground state of Ohio on Thursday and brazenly stole Barack Obama's clothes. He presented himself as the agent of "big change" and repeatedly accused the president of being the candidate of the status quo. In the final stop of a single day's three-point dash from the south-west to the north-west of the state, Romney echoed the message that Obama had brought to this electoral ground zero just four years ago. "Paul Ryan and I represent a big change for America," he told a high school football stadium filled in the north-west town of Defiance, his voice growing hoarse. "We're finally going to tackle the problems politicians have spoken about for years but haven't been willing to deal with," he said. With further parallels to the Obama message of 2008, he added that to get the job done in Washington he would "reach across the aisle." There was no sign of any waning in the momentum that the Republican nominee has enjoyed since the Denver TV presidential debate. The stadium was packed to overflowing, supporters having queued for two hours in a line that snaked right around the high school - another striking '08 echo. The official tally for the event was 12,000 people, which was impressive given that the population of Defiance is 16,000. "This is a big event for a small town," said Jason Tackett, 26, attending the rally. I've never seen anything like it in all my life here. The town takes its name from the way General Anthony Wayne described a fort built here in the war against the Native Americans: "I defy the English, Indians and all the devils of hell to take it." Romney came here with more than a little of that spirit. It took defiance to come to Defiance because not two miles out of the town is a massive General Motors plant, an iron and aluminium foundary that makes engine blocks. The Obama re-election campaign has been pounding the area with TV and radio adverts reminding voters that in the 2008 crash Romney argued that the auto industry should be allowed to go bankrupt. The $87bn in federal loans that the Obama administration extended to GM and Chrysler, located just up the road in Toledo, have provided one of the great fault lines of the election this year, with Obama presenting himself as the savior of the auto industry and Romney on the defensive. Unemployment in Defiance is 6.7%, well below the national average of 7.8%. A small demonstration of Obama supporters at the entrance to Defiance high school included several workers from the GM plant. If GM had gone bankrupt this town would have been destroyed. Hospital, schools, lawyers, restaurants, you name it, everything would have gone down," said Veronica Estrada, 43. But there were also several GM workers, and other employees of subsidiaries dependant on the GM plant, inside the stadium supporting Romney. John Vogel, 29, who works for a sub-contractor of GM, dismissed Obama's claim to having saved the industry. "It's the people that do the work that saved GM, not the politicians," he said. A contractor who works for all of the large car companies called Jim, 52, (he declined to give his last name) disputed that Romney would have let GM go bankrupt in any case. He had a plan to reorganise it, he wanted to see GM go through a managed rebuilding. In Jim's opinion, unionised companies like GM were starting to wish they'd done more to restructure themselves. A lot of them are beginning to realise they are hanging on but not getting stronger. Rob Portman, the Republican senator for Ohio who was a contender for vice-presidential nominee before Romney chose Ryan to be his running mate, addressed the auto bailout head on in his speech to the Defiance crowd. He began by admitting that he had supported the auto bailout, but then went on to accuse Obama of lying about Romney's position. There is no question in my mind that Mitt Romney's policies for the future are going to be better for our auto companies, for the workers, for communities like Defiance. Folks, if you are an auto worker here tonight I can tell you this - we need to elect Mitt Romney as next president of the United States. The latest polls on Ohio vary slightly with two - CBS News / Quinnipiac and Time showing Obama with a still robust five point lead but all the others recording an effective tie between the presidential rivals. The crucial importance of the state comes down to the fact that unless Romney wins its crop of 18 electoral votes out of the 270 needed to win, he will find it virtually impossible to win the presidency. Victory for Romney without Ohio would require him to sweep other swing states and take either Nevada or Wisconsin. Part of the attraction of Romney for the Defiance crowd was on religious grounds. The town is heavily Catholic, with a strong socially conservative bent. Debra Scheub, 55, said that watching the presidential debates had given new energy to the Republican campaign. Everybody got to see the man for themselves. They saw he was a viable candidate, and we learned a lot about his character and how he carries himself as a disciplined man.