Obama’s reelection campaign stalls on latest jobs report

 

 

 

Obama speaks after meeting with business leaders at the White House on Jan. 28 2009.

 

The headline in the business section of the Washington Post with Bloomberg reads Economic news is bad for Obama’s reelection bid. (Obama's reelection bid is under the leadership of those same folks who in 08 belittled the economic successes of the Clinton Administration.)

I’ll add that in addition to poor President Obama, the economic news is also bad for the unemployed, those whose homes are being foreclosed, the employed and underemployed who haven’t seen raises in quite a few years, as well as Social Security recipients whose trust fund was stolen by the US government - they’ve not seen a cost of living increase since Obama took office. And in the meantime, he extended the Bush era tax cuts for the wealthy.

When you’re losing sleep at night from worries about paying the rent, you’re probably not all worked up over Obama’s chances for reelection.

Anyway, the Post’s Goldfarb and Wallsten lay out the problems the Obama campaign is facing in the coming election:

Any notion that President Obama’s reelection campaign was gaining momentum was shaken this week by a string of worrisome economic reports showing weakness in the job market and new lows for housing prices.

The bad news for Obama stood in contrast to a run of positive developments that had given many Democrats reason for confidence. The economy had been adding jobs at a steady clip. A president once accused of being weak on national security ordered the raid that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden. And several potentially strong Republican presidential candidates took a pass on the race.

But on Friday, a surprisingly grim employment report was a warning that Obama could face a more challenging economy than had been expected. The government said the economy had added far fewer jobs than analysts had projected.

The disappointing news posed a predicament for Obama, who had scheduled a visit to a Chrysler plant Friday to herald the rebirth of the U.S. auto industry. As he gave a celebratory speech to cheering autoworkers, his advisers in Washington scrambled to explain the jobs report.

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