Inside Pitch

After his first debate with Republican Mitt Romney Wednesday night, President Obama will head back to the key battleground state of Ohio on Thursday and Friday.

Obama will hold an event in Denver Thursday morning; and then travel to Columbus for a what the campaign calls a "grassroots event" in Columbus. On Friday, the campaign said, another "grassroots" event will take place in Cleveland.

The Obama-Biden campaign has yet to release details on the president's Columbus and Cleveland events.

A new poll shows President Obama holding large leads over Republican challenger Mitt Romney in three key battleground states - Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania.

The Quinnipiac University/CBS News/New York Times poll released Wednesday has Obama up by 10 percentage points in Ohio - 53 percent to 43 percent for Romney.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, locked in a tough race for re-election, will rally with union workers and Democratic supporters Wednesday afternoon to draw attention to his role in the 2009 auto industry bailout, which he says saved 850,00 Ohio jobs.

The rally is at 4 p.m. Wednesday at the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union hall at 1100 Crawford St. in Middletown.

Brown's campaign chose Middletown for the rally because AK Steel, located in that Butler County city, produces some of the steel for the Chevy Cruze, an Ohio-built auto.