Politics: Obama and the Terrible, No Good, Horrible, Very Bad Day

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Politics Obama and the Terrible, No Good, Horrible, Very Bad Day The economic news is dire for his re-election campaign. But there are three bright spots. By John Dickerson Posted Friday, Jun 01, 2012, at 09:23 PM ET Imagine if every time—booooo—you opened your—boo—mouth—boooo—someone heckled you? That's what President Obama's top adviser David Axelrod faced at a Boston press conference this week. Mitt Romney staffers drove from their headquarters across town to shout him down. Something like this has been happening to the president this election. When he tries to explain why he should be re-elected, the economy opens its mouth and drowns him out. On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that only 69,000 jobs had been created in May, well shy of the roughly 140,000 required to sustain minimum economic health. The numbers for previous months were also revised downward, and the unemployment rate ticked up to 8.2 percent. Booooooooooo. If people lock in their feelings about the economy six months before an election, as so many political strategists say, then the president is in bad shape. We're five months away from Election Day. In some states like Ohio and Florida voting starts four months from now. Though there are some positive signs in the economy—consumer confidence was up last month, so was consumer spending, construction was up, and manufacturing continues to rise—there is no evidence that anything is going to happen that will be dramatic enough to break people out of their funk in which they think the country is heading in the wrong direction and they don't approve of the job the president has done handling economic issues ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Dickerson: Last Week Was a Bad Week for Obama, but Not as Bad as You Think The American Cities Where Gas Prices Are Skyrocketing the Most A New French Animated Movie That's Less Hectic and Less Cutesy Than American Ones	Advertisement
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