Romney and Ryan team up in battleground Ohio NORTH CANTON, Ohio - Highlighting how critical the state of Ohio is to his path to the White House, Mitt Romney campaigned with running mate Paul Ryan on Friday night, an event that started with a performance by the Oak Ridge Boys and ended with a fireworks display. Ryan introduced Romney by noting the importance of the battleground state and its 18 electoral votes. Look, Ohio, you're used to it. You know that you're the epicenter of choosing the future of this country," he said. You understand the responsibility that you have and the opportunity that you have. These are serious times which require serious solutions. Romney painted a troubling picture of what America would look like under a second term of President Obama, saying seniors would call medical specialists and not be able to get an appointment because of cuts to Medicare, middle-class families would face higher taxes, the young would be burdened with even greater debt and parents would be forced to keep children in schools that they are unhappy with. You see, if he's reelected you're going to have the status quo. You're going to have more of the same for four years," Romney told thousands gathered at a bitterly cold rally on a high school football field. He calls it forward, I call it forewarned. You've seen what the last four years have brought. He singled out college kids, who supported Obama in record numbers four years ago. "I don't understand how a college kid could vote for Barack Obama, not because he's a bad guy, but just because he doesn't understand that as he spends this money and says how much he's helping you, he's in fact spending your money and you're going to have to pay it back with interest," Romney said. And so if Paul Ryan and I are elected president and vice president, we're going to finally get America on track to a balanced budget. The men are showering attention on Ohio. Ryan was in Cleveland on Wednesday, Romney hit three stops on Thursday, and Ryan is kicking off an eight-city, two day bus tour on Saturday. The ticketmates were preceded by actress Patricia Heaton, an Ohio native and rare public conservative in Hollywood. "The only thing tougher about being a conservative in Hollywood is being a Cleveland Browns fan," she said. She turned serious, rattling off statics about unemployment, welfare rolls and other economic indicators before introducing Ryan. "I have to tell you backstage I didn't recognize him with his shirt on," she said. And I did wear orange not only because I'm a Browns fan, but I was afraid Paul would have his shotgun. I just wanted to make sure he knew I was here and where I was standing. Didn't want to get any buckshot. @alanasemuels