Romney supporters, protesters gather outside SeaGate Convention Centre

Supporters wait for Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney to arrive.

The Blade/Jeremy Wadsworth
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Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks at the SeaGate Centre in Toledo.

About 50 Obama supporters today chanted “Outsource Romney” at supporters who were waiting in line to hear GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney speak at the SeaGate Convention Centre.

The protesters stood across the street from the center’s entrance on Jefferson Street - some wearing Romney masks and “Obama for Ohio” badges and holding up signs that read “Seniors Aren’t Victims,” Romney Ryan? Be afraid, be very afraid,” and “Romney - 100 percent out of touch.”

The Republican presidential nominee spoke at the centre at 5:30 p.m. The line to get into the center at 3:45 p.m. snaked down several blocks.

RELATED: Romney campaigns in Westerville

Earlier today, he rallied a crowd in a high school gym in Westerville, Ohio, with help from Columbus native golfing legend Jack Nicklaus, and then headed to Bedford Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, where he spoke at American Spring Wire at about 1 p.m.

A protestor wears a Mitt Romney mask as he protests presidential candidate Mitt Romney event at the Seagate Convention Center in Toledo.

The Romney campaign’s day in swing-state Ohio started off with the release of a new poll from Quinnipiac University/ CBS News/New York Times showing him trailing President Obama in Ohio by 53-43 percent. Mr. Romney is competing for the public’s and the media’s attention today with President Obama who is stumping in Ohio college towns Bowling Green and Kent.

Mr. Nicklaus was introduced in the filled Westerville High School gym in this affluent Columbus suburb by U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R., Ohio) who described him as a philanthropist who has benefited 75 central Ohio charities.

“The worst thing you can do on a golf course is to dwell on a bad shot. We are too late to change recent history but we can write a better future for ourselves, for our children, and for their children,” said Mr. Nicklaus, 72.

In his own remarks at the Westerville stop, Mr. Romney lambasted the growing national debt, which he said has increased from $10 billion to more than $16 billion under President Obama and is likely to reach $20 billion if he gets another four years.

Supporters wait for Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney to arrive.

“It is crushing. We’re on the road to Europe, we’re on the road to Greece, I will get us off that road,” Mr. Romney said.

He addressed his plans for tax reform by making the tax system simpler and reducing the rates.

President Obama is over the magic 50 percent mark and tops former Massachusetts Gov. Romney among likely voters by 9 to 12 percentage points in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, according to the new poll.

In Ohio, it shows Mr.Obama leading Mr. Romney 53-43 percent.