Did Jobs Report Shift the Political Dynamic? Don?t ?Muck it Up?

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President Obama is clearly thrilled with today’s jobs report, which blew away analysts’ expectations, and appeared to show broad-based jobs growth across the economy. In fact, Obama suddenly sounds much more confident; he immediately tried to put Republicans on their heels, telling them not to “muck it up” by failing to pass an extension of payroll tax cuts. “Now is not the time for self-inflicted wounds,” he said.

The Times’ Nate Silver estimates that Obama needs the economy to add 150,000 jobs every month to stay out of hot water. In January, the U.S. added 243,000 jobs.

That said, Obama continues to hedge his bets somewhat, knowing that jobs report numbers can be volatile: “These numbers will go up and down in coming months, and there are still far too many Americans that need a job.”

The RNC acknowledged that the report showed progress, but kept the heat on: “While today’s jobs report brings welcome news of lower unemployment, far too many Americans are still without work.* Our economy remains unacceptably weak, and families across the country are still struggling to make ends meet,” said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus.



Original Article Source by Barrons.com