Fight for Ohio Is Raging -- A Must Win for McCain

Oct. 6, 2008— -- "World News" is road-tripping this week through some hotly contested battleground states. Senior producer Tom Nagorski blogs from our bus while driving through Ohio:

The word "battleground" may be overused, but there is no question that the state of Ohio once again fits the bill better than any other. No GOP nominee has gone to the White House without winning here, and it's one of the tightest states at the moment.

Folks here know all this -- they are being bombarded with ads, and as one Dayton native told us, "Don't know how we do it, but we always seem to get it right." Meaning: How Ohio goes, so goes the nation.

Ohio is also ground zero for an assault on manufacturing jobs -- nearly 17 percent of those jobs have left the state since 2001. We met four men who had worked for between 10 and 15 years for General Motors, only to learn just last week that their plant in Moraine is shutting down. These men have poured their lives into GM -- three had fathers and two had grandfathers who worked on the GM lines as well.

One is for McCain, two are for Obama and one is leaning McCain but not certain. Interestingly, one of the Obama supporters has never voted for a Democrat for president, and the other borrowed a McCain slogan to say, "Country first -- I'm voting for the Democrats."

The four men agree on this much: The economy overwhelms all else, and they have faith in themselves and their country to bounce back.

One view from the battleground.