Ohio is at the center of a storm this year, former Gov. Ted Strickland said Friday. He came to Ironton in hopes the storm will sweep President Barack Obama back into office in November.

Flanked by an Obama campaign staffer and Courtney Johnson, a local resident and school teacher who figured prominently in some anti-Issue 2 television advertisements last year, Strickland said he has been stumping in southeastern Ohio to illustrate the differences between Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

“It’s important to reach out to folks and let them know the importance of this election and why the president deserves re-election,” Strickland said.

Strickland said Obama took office at a bad time in our nation’s history and has turned the tide of layoffs with a stimulus bill that put people back to work, intervened in the auto industry that was crumbling financially, saving hundreds of thousands of jobs, and widened access to health care.

“He hasn’t solved every problem but he’s only been in office three-and-a-half years,” Strickland said.

By contrast, Strickland said Romney is not as concerned with education and wants to turn Medicare into a voucher program.

Johnson also highlighted comparisons between Romney and Obama in their respective records on education.

“As Governor of Massachusetts, Romney balanced his state’s budget on the backs of students. By his second year, Romney had already forced Massachusetts schools to take the second largest cuts, per pupil, in the country. Those cuts forced schools districts to lay off thousands of teachers, along with librarians and even police officers — 14,500 in all. Not exactly the record of a job creator,” Johnson said.

As for Obama, Johnson said, “The president laid out a plan to prevent additional teacher layoffs and attract and reward great teachers including fair evaluation systems and reformed tenure systems that raise the bar while still protecting good teachers and supporting teachers’ rights to collectively bargain.”

Campaign staffer Michael McCandlish promised to leave no stone unturned in the Buckeye State to protect progress and keep the president in office.

Ironton was one of several stops Strickland made this week in support of Obama. He also visited Athens, Pomeroy, Chillicothe and Steubenville.