REPORTER: Mark Davis
It's been called the Million Puppet March in Washington DC, a reaction to Mitt Romney's threat to cut Federal funding to public broadcaster PBS, the producer of 'Sesame Street'.
MAN: 'Sesame Street', Muppets, I mean that's my childhood. I would hate to see them go
But of course, this protest is not just about saving Big Bird. It's a rally against Mitt Romney's view that governments should do and fund as little as possible in society.
MAN WITH PUPPET: I suppose it's a slippery slope. Once we lose funding to this we can lose it to other things we take for granted. We are a part of the community and we are a part of the society and we do want the roads paved and children educated.
It's an issue that goes to the very heart of this election. As storms whip the East Coast, politicians and journalists alike are heading inland - more often than not, to Ohio. With Obama and Mitt Romney running neck and neck, it looks like Ohio, a big state, a swing state, could prove to be the decider in the election. Ohio is a diverse state - parts of it rural and firmly conservative - like here in Marion County.
WOMAN: He's a better man than Obama.
REPORTER: Why is that?
WOMAN: Obama - he doesn't stand for anything that I believe in. He's more for corruption, he's a Muslim.
REPORTER: You believe it yeah?
WOMAN: I do.
MAN 2: The fact he was mentored by a communist socialist Marxist by the name of Davis, that's pathetic.
This county is fertile ground for Mitt Romney. At its base, Romney's message is classic Republican Orthodoxy - a low tax, small government model.
MITT ROMNEY, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We'll bring taxes down.
At complete odds with Obama's scheme to boost the economy with government spending and a plan to tax the rich.
MITT ROMNEY: We'll take full advantage of our oil, our coal...
The Republicans and Democrats have always had differences on the role of government and how to pay for it. In this election those differences are more than shades of grey - a chasm is opening between them.
MITT ROMNEY: We'll stop spending what we don't have and finally get America back on track for a balanced budget.
It is the same divide replicated in this week’s Senate and congressional elections as well - smaller venue, same message. Republican Senate hopeful Josh Mandel is working the diners.
JOSH MANDEL: Good to see you.
The Republican small government line can be a tough sell in parts of Ohio.
MAN 3: Very excited about what it holds here.
This State's economy was saved by a massive injection of federal money into the collapsing auto industry. Tens of thousands of jobs were saved, but an unwelcome intervention for some.
MAN 4: Well I like Josh, because he was a marine and I like his ideas. Also, his opponent is very left, I would say Marxist.
REPORTER: You won't miss the Democrat money if it's taken away?
MAN 4: For me, please take it away. Everything has to survive based on its own merits.
REPORTER: On its own feet.
MAN 4: On its own merits, that's right. That's right.
Sitting Democrat Senator Sherrod Brown now up for re-election is on solid grouped in the Steele making town of Canton, despite a $30 million ad campaign against him. Most of the dollars and eyes are focused on Ohio.
SENATOR SHERROD BROWN: Drug companies, insurance companies, all the oil companies that are coming after us - what you do - I'll take the steelworkers on my side before Exxon any day. You know what that means. Since the auto rescue the unemployment rate in this state has gone from 10.6% to 7%. That's because you stood up, the President stood up, all of us did, to fight for the middle class and fight to win.
Outside the steelworkers have spotted a Republican tracker.
REPORTER: What is he up to?
PAT ESHLICK: I don't know, he has a video camera out.
A party worker sent to follow and film every step of Sherrod Brown's journey, but he won't follow much today if Pat Eshlick can help it.
PAT ESHLICK: No-one will intimidate anyone on my watch.
REPORTER: Not going to happen today.
PAT ESHLICK: Not on my watch, this is my Union Hall. It's not going to happen.
For Pat, this is the most important election of his life. The choice never so stark.
PAT ESHLICK: No, my father-in-law retired from L TV. When they went bankrupt he lost hundreds on his pension and passed away without health care. My mother-in-law passed away just four weeks ago Saturday, 86 years old, had no health care. It's about my standard of living, it’s about the fight for my boy, a senior in high school, who wants to go to college, my sophomore son who is at high school and wants to go to college. It's about the American dream, working hard and getting ahead. It's not about the rich man, it’s about the middle class person who worked every day, who lost fingers on the job site to provide for my family. This is what we are up against.
If 60 billion to save the car industry was a vote-buying exercise, it's not clear that it has paid much of a dividend. Mitt Romney still has a good chance of winning here.
MAN 5: Every Republican in this country knows that as soon as the middle class looks at only their economic best interest, not a single one will be elected, so they make a new wedge every election cycle or so.
MAN 6: Abortion, guns, don't ask, don't tell. They did it on the turn of the century.
REPORTER: Most of it resonates...
MAN 6: With a certain part of our membership.
REPORTER: Ohio has it all though, right?. Every section of American society seems to be here.
MAN 6: Yes, absolutely. At the end of the day we'll deliver Ohio for Barack Obama.
REPORTER: And if Ohio goes to Barack Obama...
MAN 6: If Ohio goes, so goes the White House.
REPORTER: Good luck. OK. Your shift is on right?
PAT ESHLICK: I start at 3:00. The door is unlocked.
REPORTER: There's manufacturing throughout the region, it's ahead, but it's taken a big hit, right?
PAT ESHLICK: It took a major, major hit. At one time this plant employed any place from 9,000-10,000 people. Down the street here, as I go down, used to be US Steel. There used to be Hercules Engines here, making the best engines in the world for military vehicles.
It's a similar story across the United States. Democrats like Pat believe the decline will get worse if capital is left to its own devices.
PAT ESHLICK: Everything has left because they are chasing the dollar and trying to exploit workers.
REPORTER: Do you think you'll win on Tuesday.
PAT ESHLICK: I'll do my damnedest. This whole weekend I already told my wife - it's my weekend off, don't expect me home, because I'm going door to door to door to door.
REPORTER: You're campaigning. Good luck to you.
PAT ESHLICK: Thank you very much, and god bless.
REPORTER: Thank you for your time.
WEATHER REPORT: Millions throughout the north-east are under the deadly grip of monster storm Sandy.
North of Canton sits the massive General Motors plant at Lordsville - a factory and a company that was going to fold just four years ago until bailed out by Obama. Down the road at the union hall Democrat congressman Tim Ryan captures the essence of this year's Democrat campaign.
TIM RYAN: We are not going to apologise. We will not apologise for embracing the values of the Democratic Party, we’re just not going to do it.
No longer on the back foot about implementing a more aggressive form of government than Americans have seen in a generation. It's a message which appears to be resonating in parts of Ohio at least and in a tight race - that may be enough to carry the game.
TIM RYAN: We are not going to apologise for the man in the middle class, we are not going to apologise for Medicare, or women's health or women’s rights, we are just not going to apologise. Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to put Barak Obama back in the White House.
MARK DAVIS: It seems that that kind of barnstorming has paid off for the Democrats in the early voting at least. More than 1.5 million in that state - the majority Democrats - have already cast their vote there over the past week. That story produced by Garry McNab.
Reporter/Camera
MARK DAVIS
Producers
GARRY MCNAB
ASHLEY SMITH
Fixer
GEORGE LERNER
Editors
WAYNE LOVE
MICAH MCGOWN