By Jeremy P. Kelley

Staff Writer

and Jack Torry

Washington Bureau

DAYTON — President Barack Obama went on the attack against challenger Mitt Romney on Tuesday, stirring up a Triangle Park crowd of 9,500 and trying to create a surge of momentum to carry him from Monday night’s final debate through the final two weeks of the presidential campaign.

Obama was making both his first Dayton campaign appearance and his first Ohio appearance with Vice President Joe Biden this year Tuesday. But it was part of an onslaught of Ohio visits from both sides, as political analysts continue to identify Ohio as perhaps the most important of 10 swing states that will decide the election.

One of the presidential or vice presidential nominees is campaigning in Ohio every day this week. Obama has held 21 political events in Ohio since May, while Romney is approaching 30. Romney returns to Cincinnati on Thursday, GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan is in Cleveland on Wednesday and Obama and Biden return to northeast Ohio later in the week.

“The Democrats can get to 270 (electoral votes) without Ohio,’’ said Dennis Eckart, a former Democratic congressman from Cleveland. “But if they get Ohio,’’ he said, then Ohio “becomes a two-for. It wins (the race) for Obama and obviously it blocks Romney.’’

Throughout the fall, Obama has held a small but relatively consistent lead in Ohio polls. But during the past two weeks, Republican officials have grown increasingly optimistic that Romney can win the state, as a few polls have shown the state as a dead heat.

“I am very confident,’’ said Robert T. Bennett, chairman of the Ohio Republican Party. “The trend line for the last three weeks’’ has been “moving in our direction and I don’t see anything that’s going to change it.’’

Obama tried to keep momentum on his side Tuesday in Dayton with a two-pronged attack – criticizing Romney for changing issue positions, and pointing to areas where the nation is rebounding under his administration.

Obama drew his biggest cheers at Triangle Park when he said his Republican opponent suffers from a condition called “Romnesia.”

“If you’ve come down with a case of Romnesia – if you can’t seem to remember the positions that you’ve taken not just four years ago but four days ago, if you don’t remember the positions that are on your website … you don’t have to worry, because Obamacare covers preexisting conditions. We can fix you up!” Obama said.

Chris Maloney, Ohio spokesman for the Romney campaign, said Obama’s speech won’t seal the deal in Ohio.

“Instead of laying out a second-term agenda, or ideas for how we can stop the recent loss of Ohio manufacturing jobs, Barack Obama instead chose to resort to the same tired distortions and negative attacks which have come to define his campaign’s closing argument for reelection,” Maloney said.

Obama did use the speech to recite a litany of ways in which he said the nation is improving.

“Our businesses have added more than 5 million new jobs over the past two and a half years,” Obama said. “Manufacturing is growing faster than any time since the 1990s. Our unemployment rate has fallen to the lowest level since I took office. Home values are rising. The stock market has rebounded. Our assembly lines are humming again. Our heroes are coming home. We are moving forward.”

But are those incremental improvements, which Obama admitted have come slowly the past four years, enough to convince voters to give him another four years?

Robert Johnson of Springfield, who attended the rally, said yes.

“He has a plan set in stone. He’s committed to helping out the Americans. He‘s for the people. And that was the message we got,” Johnson said of Obama’s speech. “He has not given up. You can just tell by the passion in his voice.”

Maloney gave his own litany on the negative side of Obama’s record.

“Under President Obama, Ohioans have endured weak economic growth, massive government debt and the prospect of severe cuts to our defense budget,” Maloney said.

Biden opened the event by pointing to a huge sign calling on supporters to vote early, and Obama reminded people they could vote immediately after the rally, as voting hours go until 7 p.m. After the rally, shuttle buses dropped off some voters at the Montgomery County Board of Elections office downtown. BOE officials said in-person early voting has been up in the first two days of extended hours, with 1,097 voting Monday and 878 Tuesday.

Biden also complimented Obama’s performance in Monday’s foreign policy debate, calling the president a “Commander in Chief who is in command of the issues.” Biden said the Romney/Ryan ticket was using”a foreign policy right out of the ‘80s, a social policy out of the ‘50s, and an economic policy right out of the ‘20s.”

Ohio Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor said Tuesday that Romney is the better choice on foreign policy because Obama “fails to understand the impact their proposed defense cuts has on our local communities across Ohio,” adding that Romney would not cut the defense budget.

Obama copied one feature of most Romney campaign stops, by laying out a five-point plan for the next four years. His points were …

* Building America’s manufacturing base by giving tax breaks to companies that create jobs here.

* Cutting oil imports in half by 2020 and continuing progress on fuel-efficient cars.

* Improving education by hiring math and science teachers, increasing community college worker training and keeping college tuition low.

* Reducing the deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years, by cutting waste and increasing taxes on the wealthy.

* Using the money that has been dedicated to two wars to fix roads, schools, bridges and improve broadband internet access nationwide.

The visits by Obama and Biden are simply the beginning of a push during the next two weeks by both campaigns to win Ohio’s coveted 18 electoral votes. Ohio GOP officials are expecting 17 events between now and the election by either Romney or his vice presidential running mate, Paul Ryan.

There is a simple explanation for why Obama and Romney are spending so much time in Ohio. There just aren’t that many competitive states left.

According to the web site RealClearPolitics.com, Obama is close to having secured 201 of the 270 electoral votes he needs. Polls show him handily winning California, New York, New Jersey and Illinois. By contrast, Romney is within grasp of 206 electoral votes as he is expected to win much of the deep South and the Rocky Mountains.

Only 10 states remain truly competitive and they include Ohio, Virginia, Florida, New Hampshire, Iowa and Colorado. Some Republicans are hopeful that Romney has a chance to win Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, but the Romney campaign has yet to focus on those three states with anything near the intensity it has reserved for Ohio.

“(Ohio) is really an important place, but right now they are all important,’’ said Barry Bennett, a Republican consultant in Washington and an official with longstanding ties to Ohio Republicans. “As Pennsylvania gets closer and closer, by next weekend everybody will be in Pennsylvania. The field is not narrowing, the states in play are actually expanding.’’

But most analysts believe the electoral map appears to lean toward Obama. He is slightly favored to win the combined 52 electoral votes of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada. In that scenario, a victory by Obama in either Florida or Ohio would give him a second term as president.

Obama’s visit caused some traffic problems, especially during afternoon rush-hour. The motorcades left Triangle Park at 4:50 p.m., and police temporarily shut down northbound I-75 and eastbound I-70 as Obama headed back to Dayton International Airport, and Biden went to an event in Springfield.

Staff writers Jackie Borchardt, Amelia Robinson and Cornelius Frolik contributed to this story.