US Election: Mitt Romney claims upper hand in Ohio on eve of Super Tuesday As the establishment favourite, Mr Romney received another major endorsement yesterday (SUN), with Eric Cantor, the number two Republican in Congress, as the candidate with the "vision" to revive the economy. But while Mr Romney, always a tepid performer on the stump, appealed to voters' heads with proposals to cut taxes and regulations, his opponent, Rick Santorum was trying to tap into the emotions of working class conservatives who feel that America has lost its way. "We need to stop listening to the siren calls of what government can do for us; and ask what we can do for ourselves," he told a buzzing hall in Lima, Ohio, putting a Republican ideological twist on John F Kennedy's famous line from his 1961 inauguration speech. Lima, a conservative town that was once home to America's largest bus maker and still makes the US Army's M1 Abrams main battle tank, has lost 8,000 manufacturing jobs since the 1970s and is must-win country for a successful candidate in Ohio. Largely skipping over the details of economic policy, Mr Santorum invoked the values of the Founding Fathers, the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the pioneering spirit of those who had settled America. "I believe in the power of faith, families, local communities and small businesses to re-build American from the bottom up," he declared, receiving one of several standing ovations. Mr Santorum's supporters love him as a man "who speaks true his mind," just as Mr Romney's love him as "a guy with the record to fix our economy," but six months out from a general election it remains unclear whether either can capture the votes of America's disaffected working class. Professor John Russo, head of the Centre for Working Class Studies at Ohio's Youngstown University, said that neither Republican candidate was offering a credible programme for working-class Ohioans, who cared far more about rising petrol pump prices than rising stock-markets. I tested a group of working class people, and they likened Romney to the cartoon character Richie Rich, which said it all. They think of him as effete and a member of the Wall Street elite that caused this latest crash. They don't even like the way he walks," Prof Russo told The Telegraph. Equally, white working class voters, who made up 50 per cent of the Ohio electorate in the 2008 general election were not impressed by the claims of Mr Santorum - a lawyer who has been a career politician - to blue-collar roots as the grandson of an Italian immigrant. "It doesn't fool blue collar voters and it won't fool anybody in the general election," he added, before predicting a narrow Santorum win on the back of tribal Catholic support which is a key voting factor in Ohio. Whatever the result in Ohio on Tuesday, it cannot hide the broader disgruntlement with America's politicians whose constant in-fighting and inability to "get things done" was a constant refrain in Ohio among ordinary voters. In Moe's Dugout a tiny saloon bar in the windswept and crumbling township of Dunkirk, where average incomes are $10,000 a year below the national average, the air was blue with cigarette smoke and profanities uttered against the political classes in Washington. It's all bullsh*t, the politicians is just out for themselves. They don't care nothing for us," said Jack Alexander, a 48-year-old trucker who is only getting 40 hours a week work, with no overtime, which is better than a year ago, but still not enough. Does he prefer any candidate? Governor Romney? Senator Santorum? "They both suck," he says, over the clack of pool balls and blaring country rock music. And what about President Obama? Him? He sucks too.