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(NBC) - President Obama and Mitt Romney were in Ohio Thursday in a partisan showdown about jobs and basic philosophy.

The battleground state could decide the election.

Their dueling speeches focused on the economy.

The president's speech featured no major new initiatives, but a passionate repeat of the main Obama themes: Taxing the rich more without cutting key spending.

"In an age when we know good jobs depend on high skills, now is not the time to scale back our commitment to education," he said.

The president warned a Romney win would mean more gridlock.

"This election is your chance to break that stalemate," he said. "If you want to give the policies of the last decade another try then you should vote for Romney."

With the president in Democratic-leaning Cleveland, Mitt Romney was in conservative Cincinnati,
mocking the Obama claim of economic progress.

"Talk is cheap. Actions speaks very loud, and if you want to see the results of his economic policies, look around Ohio, look around the country and you'll see that a lot of people are hurting," Romney said.

Boosted by $10 million dollars from one Las Vegas billionaire, Team Romney's advertising war chest is now bigger than Team Obama's, enabling Romney to capitalize on the president's recent "the private sector's doing fine" gaffe.

President Obama raises money tonight at actress Sarah Jessica Parker's home in New York.

It's a jarring contrast: The president casting himself as the fighter for the middle class then flying to Manhattan to hobnob with the rich.