Some See Obama Visit As Political

• {Kentucky}...The Brent Spence Bridge connecting Ohio and Kentucky, the respective home states of Republican House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, will serve as the backdrop Thursday as President Barack Obama visits the area to promote his American Jobs Act. McConnell said Wednesday in Washington that, "President Obama may think the best way to distract people from the challenges we face is to stand near a bridge in a swing state and pit one group of Americans against another and hope his critics look bad if they don't go along with him. But I don't think he's fooling anyone." McConnell's office released a statement earlier saying there were bridges in need of work in Virginia and other places nearer Washington that Obama could visit. Obama highlighted the bridge, which officials estimate carries 4 percent of the nation's gross domestic product annually, when he presented his jobs plan to Congress earlier this month. Keeping attention focused on the bridge also enables the White House to heat up the 2012 political campaign in the presidential election swing state of Ohio. Obama's visit will be his second to Ohio in two weeks, and Vice President Joe Biden has already been to the state twice this month. Kevin DeWine, Ohio GOP chairman, says, "They come to Ohio because it's a state they have to win to get re-elected." Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, who had been lobbying the administration about the bridge, will face a Republican challenger in Ohio as he seeks a second term in 2012. DeWine said that while Brown has advocated Obama's spending programs, Ohio unemployment is still at 9.1 percent.