Senator Hillary Clinton won the Democratic primary in Ohio, putting a stop Senator Barack Obama’s winning streak. But in the weeks leading up to the election, both candidates marched around the state and spoke to the perennial Ohio concern: loss of manufacturing jobs. White House seekers have been doing it for years. They’ve found that if you do it well, you just might get elected president.

Last month, the American Manufacturing and Trade Action Coalition, a lobbying group in Washington, DC that tries to keep manufacturing jobs in the country, released a study that showed that Ohio lost 3.7 percent of its manufacturing jobs from 2000-2007. The national average was a 4.2 percent gain.

The study provides a useful framework to look at the performance of the Bush administration, said Lloyd Wood, a spokesman for the coalition. But he admitted that we were really headed down this path prior to Bush’s taking office.

He said that President Bush’s policies are not terribly different from both of his predecessors. NAFTA, after all, was enacted under Bill Clinton, negotiated under George H.W. Bush. Negotiations for China to join the World Trade Organization, the international body that deals with trade rules between nations, began with Clinton and were finalized in the first year of the current president’s term.

Enter this year’s candidates. The economy has become an issue of major concern for voters, just as the Iraq War was in 2006. We have a growing trade deficit and the unemployment rate is creeping upward. As the campaign goes on, Obama and Clinton will continue to spar over what to do about free trade and other economic issues. The eventual nominee will have to engage in similar exchanges with John McCain.

But if change is what we need, it’s going to require more than campaign rhetoric. Politicians are great at stirring up emotions in voters who work multiple jobs or have traded in hard hats for paper caps at fast food restaurants. The question is, will the next president actually be able to do the heavy lifting required to keep or develop manufacturing jobs in places like Ohio?

Bush’s successor will have to figure out a way to navigate this complicated landscape, not just talk about it. The middle class quality of life in this country depends on it.