President Bush came to Cincinnati Monday to speak at a conference sponsored by the Cincinnati Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society and the John M. Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs at Ashland University.

In a prepared version of remarks, the topic of Bush's remarks was the "proper role of federal judges" and Bush spoke of the importance of judicial selections.

Bush made clear that he does not believe in a "living" Constitution, and said his judicial philosophy "is demonstrated most clearly by the many outstanding judges I have appointed to the bench."

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Lorain) and Ohio Democratic Party chair Chris Redfern responded to the Bush visit by focusing their comments on what they called the "devastating impact of eight long years of failed Bush-McCain economic policies on Ohio families."

Brown said that as he participates in roundtable discussions throughout the state, what he hears more than anything is a "widespread economic anxiety" in that "people feel a real betrayal of the middle-class."

"The numbers speak for themselves," Brown said. "We know that. We know the huge number of lost jobs - more than 1,000 factories have shut down or had mass layoffs in Ohio. One-hundred and eighty thousand workers have lost their jobs since President Bush took office - that's 61 jobs lost every day."

Brown said that "we know what that's doing to our communities" and it creates a downward spiral, and devastates smaller communities.

"When I see George Bush come out here and try to rally the Republican base, what he's really doing is showing how close his policies are to John McCain's," Brown said. "We've challenged John McCain throughout this campaign to give us one major issue where he's different from George Bush. It's the same trade policy - more job-killing trade agreements - the same privatization of Social Security... the same tax-cuts for the rich that George Bush has - the same attempts at privatization of Medicare... On every major issue, it's just more of the same."

Brown said that Obama will look at these issues through the prism of what it means for the middle-class.

"When Barack Obama is president he's going to think, ‘What kind of impact is this going to have on families, in Ohio and elsewhere, and all that that means for the future of this country.'"

Redfern said that the work of Brown and Gov. Ted Strickland in trying to attract jobs to Ohio has been offset by McCain's work in the reverse.

"John McCain has supported waving and weakening by-American laws," Redfern said. "He has voted against limiting tax breaks for companies that import foreign-manufactured goods. ...He has voted against programs that allow displaced workers to keep their homes and keep their jobs."

Redfern said that McCain has cast several votes against the best interests of workers, and said McCain supports taking money away from programs designed to re-train workers.

"On issue after issue, and vote after vote, we have seen Sen. McCain marching in lockstep with George Bush on the economy," Redfern said.

Redfern said that McCain is out-of-touch with the workers of the state of Ohio.