"He is here on his own. We weren't aware of his visit," said Brendon Cull, spokesman for the Democratic presidential campaign in Ohio.

The controversial filmmaker is a lightning rod for his liberal outspokenness and for his film that suggested Bush loafed during his pre-Sept. 11, 2001, presidency, is too cozy with the Saudi royal family and uses war to keep America's poor in check.

Republican spokesman Kevin Sheridan said Moore represented a bitter, America-blaming, Bush-hating fringe of the Democratic Party.

"That wing of the party definitely has a home in John Kerry's Democratic Party," Sheridan said.

Saturday, Moore will hit college campuses in Athens, Akron and Columbus.

Economy is trump card

Ohio has heard its share of bad economic news in the last year - 230,000 jobs lost, manufacturing being outsourced, unemployment running higher than the nation.

Now a new study from Penn State shows gloomy economic media reports can trump presidential successes - bad news for President Bush.

Good news in foreign policy and other political arenas, even when well publicized, will not stop a president's approval ratings from tumbling if the media reports a faltering economy, according to Penn State's Suzanna De Boef. The associate professor of political science co-authored the paper, "The Political (and Economic) Origins of Consumer Confidence," in the October issue of the American Journal of Political Science.

One recent example: the first President Bush.

"Bush's overall approval ratings remained quite solid - and, during the war, quite spectacular - but confidence in his management of the economy eroded steadily," she reported.

Muslims getting out vote

Ohio's Muslims said they made more than 3,000 phone calls to registered Muslim voters last weekend - and they've got 22,000 more calls to make this weekend.

"Muslims are not sitting by and watching this election; we are full participants," said Jad Humeidan, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Ohio chapter. Muslims are so energized that, despite the fact that most are fasting during the days as part of Ramadan, they stay past their three-hour shifts to make more calls.

In Cincinnati, local Muslims will be making calls from 2938 Vernon Place in Walnut Hills from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For more information contact csaylor@cair-net.org.

Rappers, general on stump

Democrats have Q-Tip, Republicans the Cabinet.

Who was in Ohio on Thursday for Kerry? The Rev. Al Sharpton, Rappers Q-Tip and Mos Def.

Who was in Ohio Thursday for Bush? Gen. Tommy Franks, Commerce Secretary Don Evans, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, and U.S. Small Business Administrator Hector Barreto.

And their boss, Bush himself, in Westlake.