President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney both made the economy the main focus of their respective campaigns. Friday's weak jobs report keeps it there.But given their rival perspectives, they're seeing two different economies.
Romney sees the glass as half empty, claiming Obama turned a bad economy worse. He says his private-sector experience and as Massachusetts governor will help him create jobs and heal the economy.
Romney called the Labor Department report "devastating news for American workers and American families" and another "harsh indictment" of Obama's economic stewardship.
Obama sees the glass as half full, arguing the economy is slowly improving and asking voters to trust him to help nurture a full recovery. He disparages Romney's economic record as governor and portrays him as a onetime job-destroying corporate raider.
"It is critical that we continue the president's economic policies that are helping us dig our way out of the deep hole that was caused by the deep recession," said Alan Krueger, Obama's top economic adviser.
The report showed the economy added just 69,000 jobs in May — about half of what's needed to match population growth — and sent up the jobless rate to 8.2 percent from 8.1 percent. It compounded concerns about slowing global growth, sent stocks plunging and clouded Obama's second-term prospects.
No president since Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression has won re-election with an unemployment rate as high as it is today.
It was 7.2 percent when President Ronald Reagan defeated Walter Mondale in 1984 and 7.4 percent when Bill Clinton ousted President George H.W. Bush in 1992. It was 6.7 percent when Obama beat Sen. John McCain in November 2008.
Romney continued a fundraising tour in California. Obama was campaigning in Minnesota and Chicago.
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Romney sees the glass as half empty, claiming Obama turned a bad economy worse. He says his private-sector experience and as Massachusetts governor will help him create jobs and heal the economy.
Romney called the Labor Department report "devastating news for American workers and American families" and another "harsh indictment" of Obama's economic stewardship.
Obama sees the glass as half full, arguing the economy is slowly improving and asking voters to trust him to help nurture a full recovery. He disparages Romney's economic record as governor and portrays him as a onetime job-destroying corporate raider.
"It is critical that we continue the president's economic policies that are helping us dig our way out of the deep hole that was caused by the deep recession," said Alan Krueger, Obama's top economic adviser.
The report showed the economy added just 69,000 jobs in May — about half of what's needed to match population growth — and sent up the jobless rate to 8.2 percent from 8.1 percent. It compounded concerns about slowing global growth, sent stocks plunging and clouded Obama's second-term prospects.
No president since Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression has won re-election with an unemployment rate as high as it is today.
It was 7.2 percent when President Ronald Reagan defeated Walter Mondale in 1984 and 7.4 percent when Bill Clinton ousted President George H.W. Bush in 1992. It was 6.7 percent when Obama beat Sen. John McCain in November 2008.
Romney continued a fundraising tour in California. Obama was campaigning in Minnesota and Chicago.
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Follow Tom Raum on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tomraum. For more AP political coverage, look for the 2012 Presidential Race in AP Mobile's Big Stories section. Also follow https://twitter.com/APCampaign and AP journalists covering the campaign: https://twitter.com/AP/ap-campaign-2012