Despite all the talk of impending doom for the Democrats in this mid-term election by our beltway media, it appears President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama can still draw a pretty sizable crowd in House Minority Leader John Boehner's back yard. They got a pretty large crowd out for a rally at Ohio State University this weekend.

Obama hits stride before 35,000 in Ohio:

President Barack Obama sent a jolt of energy through battered Democratic Party mid-term election hopes, as a crowd of 35,000 cheered his first rally in two years with his wife Michelle.

Obama showed he can still fire up a vast crowd of young supporters, despite his diminished political brand and Democratic fears of a drubbing at the hands of resurgent Republicans in congressional polls on November 2.

It was a show of force and energy in a bellwether state which helped put Obama in the White House, but which has been badly hit by the recession and high unemployment, leaving Democrats fearing a high political price.

"In a little more than two weeks you can set the direction of this state and this country," Obama told the crowd at Ohio State University, seeking to close an apparent enthusiasm gap with Republicans two weeks from polling day.

"Just like you did in 2008, you can defy the conventional wisdom," he said, seeking to drive up turnout among young Democratic voters even though he is not on the ballot, in a rally reminiscent of his historic presidential campaign.

"Everybody said, 'No you can't' and in 2008 you showed them 'Yes we can,'" Obama said.

Obama was introduced by the First Lady, an increasingly confident political figure in her own right, who boasts approval ratings higher than those of her husband after his tough two years in Washington's political crossfire.

"If you are still as fired up and ready to go as you were two years ago... I know we can keep bringing about the change," Michelle Obama said.