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Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
President Barack Obama greets supporters Friday during a campaign event at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, N.H.
President Barack Obama traveled to Portsmouth, N.H., looking to maintain the momentum from his Thursday night Democratic convention address despite a disappointing jobs report released Friday morning.
Trying not to put too much of a damper on the event – his first since his convention prime-time acceptance speech -- the president sought to put a positive light on the jobs report, which showed a lower-than-expected 96,000 jobs created in August and an 8.1 percent unemployment rate.
“Today we learned that after losing around 800,000 jobs a month when I took office, business once again added jobs for the 30th month in a row,” he told the 6,000-person crowd at the Strawbery Banke Museum.
“But that's not good enough,” he continued. “We need to create more jobs faster. We need to fill the hole left by this recession faster. We need to come out of this crisis stronger than when we went in.”
He spent much of the rest of his speech hitting similar notes as he did Thursday night – explaining in broad, aspirational language his goals for a second term, including adding a million jobs over the next four years; cutting oil imports in half by 2020; improving access to education and overhauling the tax code.
He also, as he did Thursday night, ridiculed Republicans for what he said was a plan that relied solely on tax cuts for the wealthy intended to encourage economic growth among lower-income people.
“All they've got to offer is the same prescriptions that they've had for the last 30 years: tax cuts, tax cuts, gut some regulations -- oh, and more tax cuts,” he said. “Tax cuts when times are good, tax cuts when times are bad, tax cuts to help you lose a few extra pounds -- (laughter) – tax cuts to improve your love life -- I -- it'll cure anything, according to them,” he joked.
It was a similar line to one he used Thursday night, when he also characterized Republicans as depending on tax cuts as a cure-all.
“Feel a cold coming on? Take two tax cuts, roll back some regulations and call me in the morning,” he joked at the Time Warner Cable arena in Charlotte, N.C., at the convention.
On the flight from Charlotte to Portsmouth, White House senior adviser David Plouffe downplayed any sort of positive effect the convention would have on the president’s standing in the polls.
“We come out of the convention with momentum. That doesn't mean the race is going to change significantly. But we think that we come out of here with some momentum in terms of putting together the electoral picture,” he told reporters traveling on the president’s plane.
Obama went on to Iowa City, Iowa, where he was to address students at the University of Iowa. He will then travel to St. Petersburg, Fla., where on Saturday he will kick off a two-day bus tour.
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Politicians are the masters of caricature.
Clinton is best at it, Obama 2nd best.
And Americans pay for it endlessly.
Didn't Paula say that Clinton's caricature was slightly bent?
here's a secret... the election will come down to JOBS, deficits and debt. As some in Hollywood say "there are times when we just gotta let him go"... Another secret... this is one of those times.
those are not well kept secrets
Most of today’s overly gloomy economic commentary comes from a rather crabbed reading of the jobs report. After all, as chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisors Alan Krueger said in reaction to the 43rd consecutive month of unemployment above 8 percent, we shouldn’t read too much into just one monthly jobs report.
Instead, look at the bright side. If Americans continue to give up looking for work at a rate of 370,00 per month, the unemployment rate will likely fall below 6 percent by the end of a second Obama term. As Joe Scarborough proclaimed about today’s report, “This is good news for the president.”
Obama/Biden 2012 - Full Employment through UNemployment.
How can a man who regurgitates Jimmy Carter speeches claim that others have no new ideas?
kapow.........
voted up
The more Obama speeches there are, the worst it is for the campaign. The American people understand the reality of the economy. And the WH can do nothing to change reality.
That's good news for America. . .
It's hard to believe the Liar- in-chief says all of his crap with a straight face.
Liar-in-Chief? You talking about Ryan?
Ponzi scheme...is a real name and person..look it up..and then look at R/R
Wow, that's really great news!
We added a couple of jobs, and the jobs report was spelled correctly and used good grammar!
Who says the Obama's economic wizardry and the American education system doesn't work.
wall street has been doing bad these 4 years under Obama huh tea nuts
Thought you libs hated wall street
Obama has nothing to do with wall street.
However, he does have considerable influence on Skid Row.
Tanking on a role such as the United States president requires more than a good personality. Mr. Obama just doesn't have the capacity for it. Our problems worsen and he delivers jokes to a crowd.
His "fixes" are crippling the country with huge national debts but roughly half of Americans remain clueless.
yeah look at wall street
damn web site
I (still) work for Chrysler. President Obama made 1.1 million jobs right there. Giving us to the GOP vultures would have eliminated Detroit and most of the durable goods manufacturing firms in the upper Midwestern United States.
A massive number of companies in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania would have closed and thrown employees on the street without incomes or pensions.
Steel, rubber, trucking, rail, autos, silicon chips, plastics, petroleum, glass, banks, finance, accounting, advertising firms, etc...even the fat pig execs that caused it all would have been wiped from the face of the earth overnight. Every industry would have gone down. Nothing left.
People have no freakin' awareness of what would have happened.
President Obama deserves another chance for that fact alone. He saved the economy of this hemisphere.
Face it. Embrace it. I lived it. I am an eye witness.
Extinct, you lived one side, many of us lived the other. My company was left holding the bag for $1 mil because of the way Obama structured the GM bailout.
$1 mil that went to his union cronies, that had a harmful effect on all my company's employees. So I'm glad you kept your job, but there's two sides to every Obama story.
Chrysler is majority owned by Fiat, who saved Chrysler by buying the majority.
gm still owes taxpayers 40 billion dollars. What about the bondholders? they got hosed.
billion
COMMONAMERICAN1:
I am sorry to hear of your experience. In my zeal to share my story I failed to give a nod to those who lost their jobs.
I didn't get any money. In fact I lost some along with some benefits, holidays, etc, but through it all I fared better in the Republican recession than most.
Realistically, I should count my lucky stars.
Only Gop-Tpartiers would squeal and be happy with disappointing jobs numbers!
Only the GOP would have the nerve, to say vote for Us we created this mess, but President Obama didn't clean it up fast enough! LOL
GOP filibustered more in the last 3.5 years than in the last 50 years, who's not working with who?
Fired up and Ready to GO reelect Obama/Biden 2012 forward not back!
thats right they want Obama to be a one term
Hummbird -
Obama's past Bush. Last night, when Obama said "it was never about me, it was all about you" he was actually now laying the blame for his failure at your feet.
So, he's no longer blaming Bush, now he's blaming you libs.
Actually this goes back to clinton who started the banks loaning money to buy houses they could not afford. sub prime housing fiasco.
Somebody needs to grab Obama by his ears and shake really hard to see if there is a brain inside his head.
What about things is so unclear? WE ARE LOSING PEOPLE FROM THE WORKFORCE FASTER THAN WE ARE CREATING NEW JOBS!
The President is basically saying that the good news is that the ship isn't sinking as fast as it was.....BUT IT IS STILL SINKING YOU MORON! After 3.5 years Obama has proven that he doesn't know what to do to reverse the direction. He only knows how to slow the rate of decay.
And that's supposed to give us hope!
Obama continues to prove that he is a clueless, arrogant imbecile!
Buckaroo- Wow great comeback, have no real answers when truth and facts are part of the equation, now do ya? LOL
Comman- Please quit listening with your ear muffs on I heard what the President said, we are in this together, I want my fellow Americans to have jobs, to have a share of the American dream, that my husband of 30 years, and our family have!
Hum, I also want everyone to have an equal opportunity, but it doesn't guarantee an equal outcome, nor do I want my share of the dream carried on the backs of my fellow Americans.
To think the American people voted this lying moron to be our president. What were we thinking? Obama is so incompetent even the Kenyans are saying he was born in the United States.
koo koo koo koo
Hilarious Frank
Republican leaders including Paul Ryan meet when Obama takes office and vow to block everything Obama tries to do for the next 4 years. Mitch McConnell confirms that their top priority is to make Obama a one term president. You have seen the list of republicans at that meeting. McConnell has said this more than once. They follow through on their promise to keep the economy down and blame it on Obama.
Somebody tells you they are going to screw up your car and make it look like your brother did it. They follow through and screw up your car and make it look like your bother did it. You are now convinced that your brother did it.
Can somebody explain this to me. Until DNA testing proves otherwise, we think that republicans are part of the human race. Maybe some of these people aren’t educated and their IQs are low. We are not talking about a few people here. We are talking about 45% or so of the population of the United States. I don’t get it. I really need some help understanding how this is possible.
uh Jim his party controlled the house, senate for 2 years til scott brown won ted kennedys seat murderer but hero of the dems.. so your logic is illogical.
I have heard from one person who doesn't know what a filibuster is and how many times it has been used in the senate by republicans. Could I get an answer from some people who know how our government works?
There is no bright spot here. Romney is right last night the party this morning the hangover with the jobs report
So now he's the comic-in-chief?
I've got one he can use.
Hey Barack! How do YOU get from8.3% to 8.1% unemployment rate by only creating 90,000 jobs?
380,000 poor souls drop out of the labor force!
What? Not funny?
Damn straight it's not funny and the jobkiller-in-chief thinks he deserves more time to screw up our nation.
Sorry, conserv rebel, but...
Congress, and ONLY Congress, can both create and pass job legislation.
How many jobs bills have come out of the Boehner-led House since 2010?
Compare that number with how many bills came out of the House attempting to take away a woman's right to control her own health care decisions.
23 jobs bills waiting for reid, a budget that passed the house... The senate no budget in over 3 years. bamas budgets have not received one vote in the senate. do nothing liberal dems.
Not a single jobs-related bill emerged from the House that wasn't laden with amendments designed to strip away the personal liberties of women.
In truth, Republicans begin with writing a bill which attacks women and then title it a jobs bill.
Sooooooooooooooo
I see someone read the latest spin from NBC today. When Obama says we were bleeding 8 billion jobs a month (give or take) then what he is referring to is something out of his control and Bush's. And now, when he seeks to take claim for "creating jobs for 20 straight months" we know he's lying? So all these years the loons from the left have been creating straw arguments simply to demonize people smarter than they?
Is that what you mean?
There have been plenty of "jobs" bills sent to the senate. That senile crooked partisan hack bastard who controls the senate won't allow any to move forward. You being one of the new know nothings would not know that. If you weren't you would know that policies created by HIS administration have killed tens of thousands of jobs.
8 billion jobs a month. You people are funny sometimes.
I'm guessing you agree with the rest of the post Jim
See post #44. That will tell you how smart I think you are. If you can understand it.
It only proved you are the idiot we all thought you were Jim.
OHHHH! The f'ing humanity!
Thanks, anyway lame-o.
Sound judgement, pragmatic leadership, honorable, respectful, and completely trustworthy. I will define success based upon the progress made rather than the perfection desired. Ours is a country and this is a world that is so dynamic and frenetic; no single person or political team can possibly foresee and pro-act on every challenge. The measure of successful leadership is based upon our Presidents proper evaluation, thoughtful response, and chronic commitment to do the right thing in the right way for the right reason. He has not been perfect, no person could be, but he has been superb. Let the critics critique;not a single one of you could possibly handle the job at hand nor have you presented an alternative that is worthy of even the slightest consideration.
Reasonable people tend to do reasonable things and it most obvious to all of us the our President has succeeded and will continue to succeed in his second term. There is no real contest, just a lot of noise.
Amen. I'm proud to be on this side of the argument.
Sorry, but I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. Thanks Polestar. You forgot that he walks on water too.
what happen to the house and boner about jobs jobs jobs they were going to help with??
Apparently Mr. Reid is using the jobs bill he was sent by the house to cover his eyes so he can pretend the @!$%# isn't getting as deep as it is.
You mean the 47 Bills, 17 bills passed in the House in 2011, and 30 in 2012, that Harry Reid Pocket Vetoed and refused to bring up for a vote?
Or are you referring to the Federal Budgets that the House has passed for the Last three years while the Democrats have failed to pass a budget in four years which they are required to do by Law?
dozens of house-passed bills that are sitting on coward Harry Reid's desk that he refuses to move forward through the process in the Senate is what happened....
Math,hmmm-At 80k jobs a month that will be roughly 24 YEARS to put todays 23 million back to work.I gues he'll need a few extra terms to finish just what we have now.Yup looks like we're goin down the right path.
how many millions of jobs has Romney cremated oh i mean created he has only been a businessman for 35 years now??
How many do you think?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bain_Capital
How many companies has Obama Ran?
Thosands more that the community organizer could ever hope for,two would be more than Obama has ever had that wasnt on the govt teet and one of those was at Baskin Robbins-a company bain saved,a little ironic eh?
and what about the 350k or so per month that leave are leaving the workforce?
and what about the weekly new jobless claims of roughly 350k?
At this rate we will NEVER get back to where we were.
119,000 less people working then July. Created 96,000 jobs in August sounds like fuzzy math to me
Crappy jobs reports in spite of a booming stock market. THAT'S what a Republican-led House has done.
The rich are STILL getting richer.
IDIOT
Racist.
Earlier I was saddened by the poor jobs report. Now I'm just pissed.
I lay it ALL at the feet of the Tea Party and Boehner's Republican-led House.
So I'm digging in and fighting you Righties now more than ever.
Don't get mad, get even.
Oooooooo! Scary little internet soldier. Why don't you blame God. Oooops. You democrat-communists don't like God, you boo God. You slugs are too easy.
Damn right you're scared.
Still looking for shovel ready jobs? HaHaHa.
On a serious note though I would like to say how terrible and shocking it is that you used stimulus money to buy automatic weapons for the Mexican cartels Fast and furious.
Better watch out Joe. MSNBCMFE is going to start pounding on his keyboard.
yes they are scared if not they would not even be posting on a liberal vine
Has the thought ever occured to you that we post here so that people can see their are other viewpoints beside Left wing talking points?
Or maybe its because we just like coming in here and giving the Left/Progressives/Liberals a chance to show how respectful, tolerant, kind, understanding, forgiving etc. they are by calling us Right wing nuts, idiots, trolls, Neanderthals, Bigots, Racists, etc.
We would hate to deny you the Opportunity to show your superior intellect and how much better you are then the rest of us.
no you get on here and try to change the minds of people like me???
Republicans function out of fear. They are afraid of African Americans. Afraid of Latinos. Afraid of the government. Afraid of Muslims. Afraid of WMDs in Iraq and nukes in Iran. Why do they love guns? The are afraid somebody will break into their house and steal their stuff. Republicans are a primitive people and fear everything they don’t understand.
thats right they live off fear
Why are you here elvis?
God created me
are you going to blame God for my answer I'm waiting?