President Barack Obama campaigned through Ohio via a bus trip as he prepares for the unemployment report that will be released Friday. The monthly unemployment report could affect the voters’ views on Obama’s re-election stance that he managed to improve the U.S. economy after the recession while Republican Mitt Romney supports policies that resulted into an economic collapse. A weak report can be disastrous to the president’s re-election bid while improvement can be helpful. The jobs issue is one of the main concerns of voters in this year’s election. New Jobs

The president chose to start his summer campaign in two political battleground states that have rosier economic outlook than most parts of the nation. Pennsylvania and Ohio have unemployment rates of 7.3 percent in May, which are below the national average of 8.2 percent.

His trip to northern Ohio gave the president a glimpse of Americana just after the Fourth of July celebrations. Main streets are decorated with flags with children climbing on fathers’ shoulders to see the president’s bus pass by. The president was greeted warmly wherever he went, as he hugged grandmothers and high-fived children.

Romney conducted his own bus tour through six states last month. It visited the two states that President Obama is visiting this week. More states are likely to be visited by both candidates in the next few months.

President Obama kicked off his two state bus tour in Maumee, Ohio. He said he refused to turn his back on communities such as that one. His rival Romney gave a statement in his family vacation in New Hampshire. He criticized the president for hitting the road with no new answers on the economic issues.

The president spoke at an early 19th century museum complex and claimed credit for the state’s improving economy, specifically its automobile industry. Obama supported the auto bailout that helped increase the sales of Chrysler’s Jeep Wrangler and Liberty, which are made in Toledo.