Two Stories, One Story - Rats Jumping Ship

Today's employment release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is not good for the Obama campaign, to say the least.   The economy created a lowly 69,000 jobs in May, and the April number was revised downward to only 77,000 jobs.   Neither of those figures approaches "replacement" levels -- the number of jobs the economy needs to create simply to keep up with population growth.   Meanwhile, the number everyone watches (but shouldn't), the unemployment rate, ticked upward to 8.2%, in part because, as summer approaches, more people enter the work force.   Again, that's bad for Obama.   But, as I keep saying, forget about these monthly fluctuations.   Here is all you need to know about what Obama has meant to the "recovery":

We had a recession that started before Obama took office.   Granted.   Not his fault (although arguably it was the fault of the Democratic Congress that took office in January 2007... look where the inflection point of the graph is).   But what has he done to pull us out of the recession?   Nothing.   His policies -- high taxes, high regulation, radical changes (Obamacare) that create uncertainty -- have exacerbated and elongated the recession, and delayed any recovery.   That's what this graph of the employment to population ratio shows.   63% to 58.5% from peak to the continuing trough.   That's 4.5% of the working population, or about 10-12 million fewer people with jobs.   That's bad.   It's time for a change.

That's the first story.   Here's the second.   Bill Clinton in an interview yesterday described Romney's tenure at Bain as a "sterling business career" and "good work."   Just a week or so ago, Obama described Romney's career at Bain as "what this campaign will be about."   You can take this to the bank... Clinton would love to see Obama lose and will do everything he can (albeit subtly) to reposition himself (and Hillary) as the real leaders of the Democratic Party in advance of a Hillary run in 2016.   That's why he's undercutting the Obama message on Bain.   And that's why he's in Wisconsin today to campaign for Tom Barrett in the recall election... it's a way of embarrassing Obama, who hasn't shown up to help Barrett.