President Obama Draws Crowd in Parma

President Barack Obama spent Thursday evening in Parma, making a campaign speech as part of a 250-mile campaign swing through Ohio.

WEWS has video of the speech at James Day Park in Parma, where he spoke of the economy, his health care plan and hiring more teachers.

According to the Plain Dealer, Obama met Natoma Canfield, the Medina woman and cancer survivor who became one of the faces of his push for health care reform, at the Parma event.

The visit was part of the president's "Betting on America" bus tour through northern Ohio on the heels of his .

Obama made a speech in Maumee, highlighting his 2009 auto industry bailout and said Republican opponent Mitt Romney's experience was with companies that were "pioneers of outsourcing," the Toledo Blade reported.

The Blade also reported that the Obama administration will file and unfair trade complaint over China's duties on some American-made cars and SUVs, including the Jeep Wrangler, which is made in Toledo.

Obama made a surprise appearance at a restaurant in Oak Harbor, the Blade reported. While there, he chatted with a little boy about the boy's spiky blue-tipped hair, and signed a fourth-grade girl's sketchbook. He later made another unexpected stop at an orchard in Danbury Township, buying corn for a dinner in Washington this weekend and some cherries.

At an ice cream social in Sandusky's Washington Park, Obama was introduced to a crowd of about 300 people by former NFL star Orlando Pace, a Sandusky native, reported Andy Ouriel of the Sandusky Register as part of the White House press pool. This is the first visit to Sandusky by a sitting president since Harry Truman in 1948, Ouriel added.

Before getting to Parma, Obama stopped at Ziggy's, an Amherst bar, and had a beer with former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland. The Elyria Chronicle-Telegram reported the president bought two Miller Lites -- one for him, one for Strickland -- and chatted with bar patrons.

Were you at one of the local events? Share your photos here!

USA Today writer David Jackson said Obama hit "all the notes" on the day's bus tour. The Wall Street Journal describes his visit as "retail politics" and has some photos from earlier in the day.

Also in Parma on Thursday, the Plain Dealer reported on a clash in the audience during a speech by Tim Pawlenty during a GOP rally to support Mitt Romney. One man reportedly tried to gag another with a handkerchief.

After the speech, the president will spend the night at the in Fairlawn, according to .