Romney hits out at Obama jobs ‘feat’

POLAND, Ohio, Saturday

Weak jobs data threw President Barack Obama on the defensive, as Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney told America’s middle class it did not have to put up with such misery.

Eagerly awaited monthly government figures made for grim reading, showing that only 80,000 jobs were created in June, well short of the rate Obama needs to swiftly cut the 8.2 per cent unemployment rate before November’s election.

The Labour Department report may interrupt several weeks of political momentum for Obama, and allow his foe Romney to shift the debate away from Democratic attacks on his past as a venture capitalist and back to the president’s record.

“There is a lot of misery in America today, and these numbers understate what people are feeling, and the amount of pain which is occurring in middle class America,” Romney said in New Hampshire, where he is on vacation.

The president’s policies “have clearly not been successful in re-igniting this economy, in putting people back to work,” Romney said.

“It doesn’t have to be this way. America can do better, and this kick in the gut has got to end.”

Obama, on the second day of a bus tour positioning him as a champion of the middle class, tried to prevent the jobs report, which follows weaker numbers on manufacturing and retail sales, from suffocating his rationale for re-election.

“It’s still tough out there,” Obama said at a school in Poland, Ohio, but took credit for saving the economy from a depression and argued Romney’s policies would risk creating the conditions that caused the crisis.

He chose to look on the bright side of the jobs report, saying it was a “step in the right direction,” but said more work remained to be done, though he noted businesses had created 4.4 million new jobs over the past 28 months.

Obama said the jobs figures were “a step in the right direction” but added: “we can’t be satisfied,” as Republicans branded him an economic failure.

The data, which makes it unlikely that unemployment will dip below the psychological 8.0 per cent level before November, jolted Obama on the second day of a “Betting on America” bus tour in swing states Ohio and Pennsylvania.

It offered an opening for Romney, who contends that his lucrative business career equips him with unique understanding of the economy and the policies needed to create jobs.

“This is a time for America to choose whether they want more of the same; whether unemployment above eight percent month after month after month is satisfactory or not,” Romney said.