Inside Pitch

Cincinnati Fire Department officials estimated the crowd at Jet Machine at about 4,000.

Most were in the warehouse where Romney is to speak momentarily; others were in an overflow room next door.

Sen. Rob Portman, who was considered as Romney's running mate, is introducing Romney to the crowd now.

Portman made a pitch for early voting.

"They're open for business now,'' Portman said. "What do you say that after this, we all get in our cars and go down to Broadway (the location of county board of elections) and cast our ballots."  

The race between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama in the key state of Ohio is “tight as a tick” and likely to stay that way right up to the end, a Romney campaign spokesman said before the GOP candidate’s event at a Bond Hill milling plant Thursday.
 

“In the last 12 days, it is going to be the candidate who is best able to identify and mobilize his supporters who is going to win Ohio,’’ said Chris Maloney, a spokesman for the Romney campaign in Ohio.