COLUMBUS — This time of year, Nationwide Arena is usually home to burly ice hockey players who slam their opponents into the boards.

On Friday, Oct. 31, it wasn't much different. Republican John McCain and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger bashed Democrat Barack Obama.

"It doesn't matter to him that higher taxes will hurt our economy and kill jobs; he believes the government has a moral claim on your hard earned dollars," McCain said. "I'm not going to let him kill jobs and send our economy into a tailspin with higher taxes. I'm going to cut taxes and create jobs."

Schwarzenegger said "John McCain is a real action hero" while Obama needs to bulk up.

"He needs to do something about those skinny legs. We're going to make him do some squats. Then we're going to go and give him some bicep curls to beef up those scrawny little arms," Schwarzenegger said. "But if we only could do something about putting some meat on his ideas."

Schwarzenegger and country music star Hank Williams Jr. helped McCain cap off his two-day, 11-city, 600-mile tour of Ohio.

Four years ago, Schwarzenegger and President Bush packed 20,000 into Nationwide Arena. McCain drew about half that many Friday.

Sen. Sherrod Brown said, "It's sad that John McCain's answer to the economic crisis is to continue the policies that caused it and make desperate, dishonest political attacks against Barack Obama. While John McCain said 'the fundamentals of our economy are strong' and supports $4 billion in tax giveaways for big oil companies like Exxon, Barack Obama will cut taxes for the middle class, invest in our manufacturing base and bring the change our country needs."

Earlier Friday, McCain committed verbal stumbles on his Ohio tour. In New Philadelphia, he called the city North Philadelphia and shouted, "And we're gonna bring America back to Ohio!"

According to a compilation of polls across the country by Real Clear Politics, Obama leads by 6.4 percent nationally and by 5.8 percent in Ohio.

Still, senior McCain campaign adviser Steve Schmidt said Friday that the race is getting closer.

"And we're focusing on the economic message about growing the economy in a race that is tightening very significantly as we come down the home stretch," Schmidt said. "And everybody on this campaign knew that Ohio is going to be like Ohio was four years ago; that it's going to be basically an even race coming into the voting on election day. And that's where we are."