YOUNGSTOWN - Vice President Joe Biden and former President Clinton rallied about 4,800 people crowded into the Covelli Centre Monday afternoon in a major event the week before Election Day.
''I thought they really addressed a lot of issues, showed a real contrast to what Gov. Romney is offering us,'' said Sue Cimino of Ravenna.
Lucy Ribelin, also of Ravenna, said the vice president and former President Bill Clinton provided reasons ''in language that everyone understands and makes sense'' for the case to re-elect Obama.
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Vice President Joe Biden speaks during the rally at the Covelli Centre with former President Bill Clinton at his side Monday.
Biden filled in for President Obama, who canceled his visit to stay at the White House to monitor Hurricane Sandy. The storm was heading along the Eastern seaboard by the time Clinton took the stage shortly after 3 p.m.
The White House announced Monday afternoon that Biden's events today in Wooster and Gambier and an event Thursday in Biden's hometown, Scranton, Pa., were canceled because of the storm.
Both campaigns were in Ohio Monday, eight days before Election Day. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was in Avon Lake.
Republicans fired back after the Biden-Clinton event, calling Biden's claims that Romney wanted to liquidate the automobile industry false. Romney's ''support for loan guarantees and warranties for the U.S. auto industry is clear,'' Romney campaign spokesman Chris Maloney said.
''The Obama campaign is less concerned with engaging in a meaningful conversation about his failed policies and more concerned with arguing against facts about their record they dislike,'' Maloney said.
The lineup change in Youngstown didn't seem to dampen anyone's spirits.
''You saw the energy in this room,'' said Mahoning County Democratic Party chairman David Betras.'' I don't think anyone missed a beat about what happened here, not a beat. The energy was explosive, explosive in here. There were people outside who couldn't get in, that's how a message resonates in the Mahoning Valley. Mitt Romney would have to pay people to fill up an arena like this in the Mahoning Valley.''
Betras said about 1,000 people were not able to get inside.
Betras said the president's lost time on the campaign trail because of the super storm won't hurt his chances of being re-elected.
''I think he's showing leadership and that's what we are electing, a leader,'' Betras said. ''We're not electing a CEO, we're electing a government leader.''
Biden touched on several familiar themes in the Democrat campaign, including Romney's budget and economic policy, education, women's issues and the rescue of the automobile industry.
Biden hammered Romney on his ''bizarre'' claims about his support for the rescue of the auto industry.
''Here's the thing, this guy pirouettes more than a ballerina,'' Biden said.
Clinton said Obama has a ''better jobs plan and a better jobs record, a better budget plant, a better education plan, a better health care plan'' than Romney.
''If you listen to all those debates, the Republican argument basically comes down to this, we left him (Obama) in a terrible mess and in four years, he didn't fix it. We have finally discovered that middle class people are having a hard time, so throw him out, put us back in and we'll do the same thing we did before on steroids,'' Clinton said.
Judy Puskar of Brookfield, an Obama delegate at the national convention, said Biden ''really brought home the message.''
''They have all the facts, all the details,'' she said.