ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- Mitt Romney stood knee-deep in weeds beside the locked gates of an abandoned Allentown metal fabricating building. It was the same factory President Obama touted in 2009 as an example of what the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act could accomplish.
Like other manufacturing concerns in the former steel city, the Allentown Metal Works went out of business due to the economic downturn and has remained shut since December 2010. Before that, the huge building was a Mack Truck plant, also a casualty of tough economic times.
Sweden's Volvo Group has owned Mack since 1990 and in 1995 moved its headquarters from Allentown to Greensboro, North Carolina. The Charlotte Observer touted the 493 North Carolina jobs the move would produce for the state.
Like neighboring Ohio, Pennsylvania's best economic years depended on a lively manufacturing base. Now, it's part of the "Rust Belt." The downturn picked up speed in the 1980s as singer Billy Joel wrote a song called "Allentown." The popular refrain struck Lehigh Valley residents with a mix of sadness and nostalgia.
"We're living here in Allentown, and they're closing all the factories down," the song went.
The Lehigh Valley, where Allentown is located, grew at a pace with its burgeoning steel industry. Bethlehem Steel was both symbol and sustenance, providing good paying jobs for thousands of blue collar and professional workers.
During the 80s and 90s, global competition for steel production and legacy costs turned the vast Bethlehem Steel empire into a giant rusting hulk, a monument to America's past. Bethlehem Steel closed its doors for good in November of 1995.
In place of the once vibrant steel industry of the Lehigh Valley, there are guided tours of the towering steel manufacturing facility, and the Sands Casino. The Lehigh Valley is suffering from a downturn that began before President Obama took office, and Romney said that, while Mr. Obama had not made conditions worse, neither had he made them better.
"If he couldn't get the economy turned around in three years, his (administration) will be a one-term proposition," Romney told a throng of news people and curious onlookers.
In Pennsylvania, the dominant majority of voters are registered Democrats so the state figures less as a player in the GOP primary process than it does in the general election, seventeen months from now.
Pennsylvania voted heavily for Obama in 2008, with 111,000 newly registered Democrats in that year, while Republican voter rolls declined by 13,000.
But dissatisfaction with the president's policies has grown in Pennsylvania and the official unemployment rate, though lower than the national average, remains high at 8.3 percent.
Romney charges that President Obama, campaigning on the same day in Philadelphia, is detached from the nation's economic problems. Philadelphia County, where the city is located, struggles along with 10.8 percent unemployment.
"It's (the economy) not turned around, not at 9.1 percent, with 20 million people unemployed," Romney said.
With a sweeping gesture at his surroundings, Romney sailed into attack mode.
"Look around you. This is what he called the symbol of hope. These are weeds not windows of hope. I didn't pick this spot. This is the spot he (Obama) picked as a symbol of the success of the stimulus. My eyes tell me it ain't (sic) working."
Anthony Ventre is a freelance writer who has written for weekly and daily newspapers and several online publications. He is a frequent Yahoo contributor, concentrating in news and financial writing.
