Hillarysworld

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In Ohio, Obama Vows to Keep Fighting on Health Care

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times Mr. Obama spoke and took audience questions during a town hall style meeting at Lorain County Community College.

ELYRIA, Ohio – Conceding his health care overhaul had run into “a little bit of a buzz saw,’’ President Obama vowed on Friday to keep fighting for legislation that will “hold the insurance industry accountable” and “to bring more stability and security to folks who are in our health care system.’’

Mr. Obama came to this Cleveland suburb — where unemployment has hit 10.9 percent, according to figures released Friday — to defend his record and spread the word that his White House is focused on economic recovery and job growth. But with his health care bill in disarray in the wake of the recent Republican Senate victory in Massachusetts, Mr. Obama also sought to send a message that he is not giving up on a health overhaul, his top domestic priority.

“I want you to understand, this is not about me. This is about you,” the president said in a town hall style meeting at Lorain County Community College here. “I didn’t take this up to boost my poll numbers.

“I think that I win when you win,” he said. “I’m trying to solve the problems that folks here in Ohio, and across this country, face every day. And I’m not going to walk away just because it’s hard. We are going to keep on working to get this done — with Democrats, I hope with Republicans, anybody who’s willing to step up. Because I’m not going to watch more people get crushed by costs or denied care they need by insurance-company bureaucrats.”

The trip through the swing state of Ohio is the second stop on what the administration is calling the president’s “White House to Main Street Tour’’ — an effort to get Mr. Obama talking to ordinary Americans about their economic concerns. Mr. Obama won Ohio in 2008, with 51 percent of the vote compared to 47 percent for Republican John McCain, but one year after his inauguration people here say they are nervous about the future and many are disappointed with the president.

With his national job approval ratings down to about 50 percent, Mr. Obama seemed intent on convincing people here that he is a fighter – a word he used, in one variant or another, multiple times during his speech.

Mr. Obama said he “won’t stop fighting to protect you from the kinds of deceptive practices we’ve seen from some in the financial sector.” He vowed that he “won’t stop fighting to open up government,’’ and said he “won’t stop fighting to cut waste and abuse in Washington.”

The trip comes one day after Mr. Obama picked a big fight – with bankers on Wall Street, announcing new restrictions on their size that is intended to prevent them from needing bailouts in the future. Perhaps alluding to that, the president said, “it’s going to be a fight. You watch.’’

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