Ohio:
US President Barack Obama used the homey backdrop of a middle-class Ohio family's backyard on Wednesday to try to show voters he shares their concerns about the economy, health care and Social Security.
Jacket off and sleeves rolled up, Obama took questions from the Weithman family and a small group of their neighbours arrayed around picnic tables and lawn chairs.
His message was familiar: The economy needs more work, but it's getting better.
"A lot of it is like recovering from an illness," the president said. "You get a little bit stronger each day."
The event came toward the end of a three-day swing that included glitzy, (m) million-dollar fundraisers.
With unemployment at 9.5 percent nationally, and topping 10 percent in Ohio, the economy dominated the discussion.
Obama took questions on how to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US, how to breathe life into the still sagging housing market, and the effect on Wall Street banks of his financial regulatory reform legislation.
The president used the questions as an opportunity to tout the expansive agenda he's undertaken since assuming the presidency.
"Slowly but surely we are moving in the right direction," Obama told those gathered in the Weithmans' backyard.
"The economy is getting stronger, but it really suffered a big trauma."
Underscoring voters' concern over the economy, a new Associated Press-GfK poll shows 61 percent of those surveyed believe the economy has got worse or stayed the same on Obama's watch.
Ross Eisenbrey, Vice President of the Economic Policy Institute said that Obama had done a lot of good things that he had not been given credit for when it came to the economy.
"It was getting worse at a tremendous rate, we were losing 600, 700-thousand jobs a month when he took office and that's over. I mean, that much has stabilised. He saved the auto industry. He's done a lot of great things that he's not getting credit for and that's a problem for him."" Eisenbrey said.
Americans are also growing increasingly frustrated with the progress Obama has made in bringing the country out of the recession, with just 41 percent approving of his handling of the economy, down from 44 percent in April.
Still, three-quarters also say it's unrealistic to expect noticeable economic improvements in the first 18 months of the president's term.
Obama's attempts to draw attention to what his administration has done to fix a flagging economy, plus what he still wants Congress to pass, come against the backdrop of a bitterly partisan midterm election season.
He has spent the week promoting his message that voters should keep Democrats in power over Republicans that he claims lack any positive ideas.
Republicans are trying to convince Americans that the party can create the jobs that Obama hasn't delivered.
Obama and his Democrats are pleading for the frustrated public to give them more time to prove that their economic fixes will work.
All 435 House seats, one-third of the Senate and most governors' jobs are on the ballot in November.
The president was capping his three-day, five-state trip with a fundraiser in Miami for Florida Democrats.
He was to return to the White House on Wednesday night, ahead of an extended vacation with his family in Martha's Vineyard, Mass.