Standing in a Cincinnati steel fabricating warehouse, Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan promised to stand up for small businesses and return prosperity to America’s middle class.

“Think about what our country is and means — it’s a wonderful story,” Ryan told an estimated crowd of 3,500 at Byer Steel. “No matter who you are, where you come from, you can make the most of your life. It’s what we call opportunity. A society of upward mobility. Unfortunately that opportunity is slipping away.”

Ryan and GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney made visits Tuesday to Cincinnati and Dayton as part of the “Romney Plan For a Stronger Middle Class Bus Tour.” Ohio, a key battleground state, has become a major focus of both campaigns, which have made multiple stops here in recent weeks. President Barack Obama was in Cincinnati for a rally last week and will be in northern Ohio today.

Obama leads Romney 52 percent to 44 percent among likely Ohio voters, according to a Washington Post poll released Tuesday. Many political pundits have said Ohio and its 18 electoral votes are a must-have for Romney to win the White House.

“Ohioans you have a huge say in this… a big responsibility,” Ryan said. “You’re used to being a battleground state. Within your power is the ability to decide who will be next president but also what kind of country you’re going to have.”

Ryan used his setting — a steel fabricating warehouse — to illustrate his campaign’s commitment to serving small businesses and protecting them from infringement by foreign companies, particularly China. Both campaigns have unleashed TV ads in Ohio attacking the other about how they would deal with China.

“We’re in hard times right now,” said company owner Burt Byer during an introduction of Ryan. “The current administration is doing us no favors. One of our biggest concerns is that our foreign competition isn’t playing on the same playing field we are. The Obama administration said they’d take China to the mat, but it looks like it’s the other way around.”

Ryan, the congressman from Wisconsin, placed an emphasis on the economy and America’s $16 trillion debt, citing both as significant issues Obama has failed to address in four years and problems Romney would attack head on. A running national debt clock, showing the country’s ever increasing debt, was placed in the warehouse and ran for the duration of Ryan’s speech.

“The President inherited a difficult situation, but he hasn’t made things better,” Ryan said. “Here is what leaders are elected to do – if you see a problem, solve a problem, don’t blame others. Mitt Romney’s life and experiences show you that he’s a person of achievement. He’s a successful businessman – that is a good thing by the way. We don’t resent that. We don’t envy that. We want more of that.”

President’s Obama’s campaign responded that Ryan was using “debunked attacks on the president’s record,” as well as “misleading rhetoric” to hide their own plan of raising taxes on the middle class to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy. Obama campaign press secretary Jessica Kershaw challenged Romney and Ryan to “put some details behind their deficit reduction plan,” which she said “lacks specifics.”

“President Obama has laid out a detailed plan to cut the deficit which, as independent analysis shows, would reduce the deficit by more than $4 trillion in the next decade,” Kershaw said.

Gloria Wilson, of Hamilton, said she believes Romney offers the best choice.

“The president isn’t listening to the people,” Wilson said. “We don’t want his health care plan, we don’t want to keep going in debt. It’s time to get him out.”

West Chester Twp. resident Robert Grant added: “The idea of our embassies under attack is disgusting. We have a weak president right now, and we’re getting taken advantage of.”