After a day where both President Obama and Republican Mitt Romney were doing events in Washington, D.C., the race for the White House shifts to a more conventional election battleground, as both men make appearances on Thursday in Ohio.

President Obama will go to Cleveland, where he will make an economic speech - though White House and Obama campaign officials made clear that no new proposals will be unveiled in those remarks.

"Everytime the President speaks about the economy, it is about the need to help it continue to grow," said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, as he downplayed the lack of new items in the speech.

While Mr. Obama is near the shores of Lake Erie, Romney will be in the southwest of the state for an event in Cincinnati, as the Republican standardbearer warns his audiences to beware of presidential rhetoric up north.

"We'll hear what he has to say," Romney told business leaders, jabbing the President for a lot of "talk" but little action about economic growth.

"His rhetoric will be soaring and eloquent, but I would suggest looking at his record more than the words," Romney said of the President's speech.

Recent polls in Ohio have showed a tightening race, with some giving the edge to Romney and others to the President.

But dig deeper into those surveys - and from other key states - and independent voters are starting to show more affinity for Romney when it comes to questions about the ecomnomy, the issue that many believe will determine the winner in November.

"This time out, across the board, there is just a fundamental disagreement, a difference of vision in terms of where we want to go," the President said at one of his seven fundraising events this week, jabbing repeatedly at Romney's economic plans.

"And the choices in this election could not be starker," Mr. Obama added.

After Romney's event in Cincinnati, he will head to New Hampshire, where he starts a five day bus tour which will bring him back to the Buckeye State again next week.