Barack Obama says Republican lawmakers are taking advantage, depriving middle-class Americans of better protection against deceptive business practice

Sarah Palin may be making all the headlines but in Canton, Ohio, it has always been about the economy.

FBI agents have thwarted an alleged plan by an Ohio couple to sell a 15-year-old girl in exchange for a packet of cocaine. Police say Pamela Tilley and Gregory Lowery drove about 110km from their home to hand the girl over to a drugs dealer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she was destined to become a child prostitute.

Between Oil City, Pennsylvania and Canton, Ohio, a hilly, leafy terrain gives way to a landscape as flat and appealing as warm Pepsi. Arriving in Canton on Interstate 77 you pass a Hoover plant, which has laid off more than 800 workers in the past seven months, and then a huge religious billboard asking: "Saved?" and offering a number to call.