A dismal new snapshot of jobs in America
shadowed the presidential campaign on Friday, testing the voter patience
that will save or sink President Barack Obama's re-election bid.
Seizing on the timing, Republican Mitt Romney said Obama's convention
party had given way to quite a "hangover."
Employers added just 96,000
jobs in August, not nearly enough to seriously dent unemployment, let
alone inspire confidence that the economy is getting better. Even the
good news — the unemployment rate dropped from 8.3 percent to 8.1
percent — resulted from many job-hunters just giving up.
"We're going in the wrong
direction," Romney declared, a view echoed by a majority of Americans
still reeling from a massive recession.
Obama put the emphasis on a
trend showing employers have added jobs for 30 months in a row now. He
did so with a nod to public frustration.
"We know it's not good
enough," Obama said, dealing with the downbeat news mere hours after his
confetti-flying Democratic National Convention. "We need to create more
jobs, faster."
With 60 frenetic days left
until the election, the economic report was not grim enough to alter the
political narrative of a consistently tight race. Yet the attention it
commanded eroded any hope of a post-convention boost for Obama.
No comments:
Post a Comment