For Obama, a jobs report that keeps stinging

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Washington Post:

POLAND, Ohio--Campaigning across Ohio on Thursday, President Obama walked a line between talk of economic optimism and expressions of economic realism. On Friday, reality hit home with a vengeance as the latest jobs report showed the economy added just 80,000 jobs in June and that the unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.2 percent.

A month ago, the nation’s May jobs report was a shocker, not just because the number of new jobs added--69,000--was so dismal but also because it was far below forecasts. Friday’s report was less surprising--it fell well within the bounds of predictions--but it may have carried as much or more weight politically for the president because it fell in with a months-long trend of weak economic growth.

Obama’s political team long has played down the significance of the Labor Department’s monthly report and did so again on Friday. They contend that Americans are not, and should not be, fixated on the current unemployment rate or monthly statistics. Instead, they say that Americans will take their clues on the economy from whether a friend or neighbor has recently found work or on whether the outlook is brighter in their communities.

In that calculus, the direction of the economy and voters’ perceptions count more than actual unemployment levels or one month’s statistics. And so, as it has done regularly, Obama’s team chose to note that the economy added jobs for the 28th straight month.

But the jobless rate has been above 8 percent for 41 consecutive months. And that is what Republican challenger Mitt Romney emphasized in his response. Any upward movement in the economy will be good for Obama, but the halting recovery of this summer is hardly grounds for a “Morning in America” ad blitz in the fall.

Obama’s message on his two-day bus tour through Ohio and Pennsylvania has been twofold. First, he pointed to modest signs of progress in rebuilding the economy--the health of the auto industry is his principal case study across Ohio’s northern tier. At the same time, he warned that the medicine offered by Romney and the Republicans is exactly the wrong prescription.

As he said here Friday morning, “We tried it, and didn’t work.”

But it has become increasingly difficult for the president to argue that what he has tried is working well, or that he has something new to offer. Each month that the economy produces fewer jobs than are needed just to keep pace with population growth adds to the burden the president faces as the clock ticks toward November.

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"It didn't work" could also be applied to your policies, Mr. President...