• MANSFIELD, Ohio (AP) -- It's all about Ohio -- again.
• The economy has improved here, and so has President Barack Obama's standing, putting pressure on Republican Mitt Romney in a state critical to his presidential hopes.
• No Republican has won the White House without winning Ohio, and Romney hopes to catch Obama here by slashing at his jobs record in working-class regions.
• "America doesn't have to have the long face it has had under this president," the Republican shouted Monday to a cheering audience in hard-scrabble Mansfield, just weeks after Obama visited. "We can get America rolling again, growing again."
• In a sign of the state's importance, hardly a week goes without the candidates appearing in Ohio. Same goes for their running mates; Republican Paul Ryan was campaigning in the Appalachian southeast Wednesday, following a similar weekend trip by Vice President Joe Biden, who is to return to the state Wednesday.
• Less than two months from Election Day, both parties say their internal campaign polling shows Obama with a narrow lead in Ohio, a Midwestern state that offers 18 Electoral College votes and has played an important role in determining every recent White House race.
• Numbers tell the story of the high stakes and, perhaps, show why Obama has been able to maintain an edge -- and why Romney remains within striking distance.
• The candidates and supportive outside groups have spent a stunning $112 million on TV advertising in the state -- one-sixth the total spent nationwide. And Obama and groups that support him have been outspending Romney and Republican-leaning independent groups here all summer, outpacing the GOP $2 million to $1 million last week alone. That's despite Romney having tapped into his general election bank account last week to boost his ads here.
• All year, the race here has been close. A Quinnipiac University poll in April after Romney locked up the Republican nomination showed a 1-point race among registered voters in the state. But two recent polls -- Quinnipiac/CBS/New York Times in August and July -- showed Obama up 6 percentage points among likely voters, and reaching 50 percent, a key marker for an endangered incumbent.
• Both Republicans and Democrats say internal surveys show it tighter now, with Obama leading by about 3 percentage points.
• Still, Democrats are almost giddy that Obama has been able to show strength in

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