POLAND, Ohio -- It took President Obama about 10 minutes before addressing today's sluggish jobs report, showing just 80,000 jobs created and the unemployment rate unchanged at 8.2 percent.

But he said the economy overall is heading "in the right direction." He blamed any sluggishness not on his policies, but on a "stalemate in Washington." 

"[B]usinesses have created 4.4 million new jobs over the past 28 months," the president said, "including 500,000 new manufacturing jobs. That’s a step in the right direction. That’s a step in the right direction. But we can’t be satisfied, because our goal was never to just keep on working to get back where we were back in 2007, and I want to get back to a time when middle-class families and those working to get to the middle class have some basic security. That’s our goal.”

He also derided Mitt Romney and Republicans once again for wanting to try policies, the president charged, that have already been tried and failed.

TAMPA, FL -- Not only did President Obama today take a jab at Mitt Romney in his speech before the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials in Orlando, FL.

He took another here at a later campaign event in Tampa, hitting the former Massachusetts governor for today's Washington Post article, which reported that Bain Capital -- under Romney's leadership -- invested in companies that outsourced jobs to India and China.

"Today, it was reported in the Washington Post that the companies his firm owned were pioneers in outsourcing jobs to China and India," Obama said. "We do not need an outsourcing pioneer in the Oval Office. We need a president that will fight for American jobs, for American manufacturing."

"That’s what my plan will do. That’s why I’m running for a second term as president of the United States,” he finished to thunderous applause.

The weather cooperated with that storyline. A large thunderclap dramatically shook the building as the president said of Republicans, “They figure that if we simply eliminate regulations and cut taxes by trillions of dollars then the market will solve all of our problems.”

The Romney camp responded to Obama's attack with this statement: “President Obama continues to use false and discredited attacks to divert attention from his abysmal economic record... He has a decades-long record of job creation, both in the private sector and as governor, when the unemployment rate in Massachusetts fell to 4.7% on his watch. If President Obama had even half of Mitt Romney’s record on jobs, he’d be running on it."

The White House confirmed today that deputy Al Qaeda leader Abu Yahya al-Libi is dead, and called it a “major blow” to the group.

However, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney offered no details on how his death was brought about and avoided other questions about the CIA’s controversial drone program.

Carney said al-Libi's death is "part of the...degradation that has taken place to core Al Qaeda during the past several years.”

Earlier today NBC's Jim Miklaszewski confirmed that al-Libi was killed in a weekend drone strike in Pakistan. 

Standing in front of people who wrote the White House about how they’re helped by the payroll-tax cut, President Obama today once again called upon Congress to extend the holiday as well as unemployment insurance. “This is an issue where an overwhelming number of people in both parties agree. How can we not get that done?" 

The president added, "I mean, has this place become so dysfunctional that even when people agree to things, we can't do it."

But Obama avoided placing the blame for the standoff in Congress on any one person.

“Democrats and even some Republicans in the House voted for that compromise. I am ready to sign that compromise into law the second it lands on my desk. So far, the only reason it hasn't landed on my desk ... is because a faction of House Republicans have refused to support this compromise.”

As the White House waits to see what Congress’ next move on the payroll tax holiday will be, the president took Bo, the dog, out for a shopping trip in Alexandria, Va., today. 

Rolling up in a shorter-than-usual motorcade, President Obama took a stroll through Petsmart in the Potomac Yards strip mall with Bo on a leash. He paid cash for his purchases, which included a rubber dog bone, as gawking shoppers snapped photos. 

He shook hands and wished shoppers, "Happy Holidays," before heading over to Best Buy to purchase presents “for the girls.”

President Obama ignored shouted questions about whether he’d deliver his daughters' gifts (which we here at First Read will not unveil) in person.

But the jaunt to the mall highlighted that, for now, he’s waiting in D.C., while his family is in Hawaii, the president's birth state.

As the president went for his credit card to pay for the games and gift cards, he said, "Let's see if my credit card still works. It will be really embarrassing if it doesn't go through.”

The credit card went through just fine.

His last stop was at Pizzeria Del Ray to pick up three pizzas. While working the rope line outside, one man told him he disagreed with him on the Keystone Pipeline, but liked what he’s doing otherwise. The president replied, “Thank you,” before shaking another hand and wishing somebody else “Merry Christmas.”

The phrase of the week at the White House has been "executive action."  That's what the administration has termed the announcements the President has made about changes to government mortgage and student loan programs.

The thing is, no one is quite sure what an executive action is.  What is clear is that these Presidential moves have not been "executive orders." According to the C-Span Glossary an executive order is "a presidential directive with the force of law” that doesn’t need congressional approval. And the White House clarifies that executive orders are "binding because as Chief Executive the President has the power to command the executive branch."

But the trusty C-Span Glossary has no entry for "executive action" and tonight the White House clarified why, it's because it's kind of a catch all term. "It just means something the executive branch does.  The use of any of a number of tools in the executive branch’s toolbox," said one administration official.

Executive actions can include "regulation, enforcement, statements of policy...and numerous other things," the official continued.

So, basically, it's anything the President does that doesn't modify a law.  Multiple officials have said this is a continuation of changes President Obama has called for in various departments throughout his presidency. 

It's just that this week, the packaging is a little prettier.

AP

President Obama (left) during a taping with late-night talk-show host Jay Leno Tuesday.

On tonight’s episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, President Obama, asked whether he’s watching the GOP debates, he invoked a reference that is more 2000 than 2011.

"I'm going to wait until everybody's voted off the island," the president quipped, invoking the reality show "Survivor." "Once they've narrowed it down to one or two, I'll start paying attention."

In a more serious part of the interview, according to excerpts released, Leno asked the president about former Libyan leader Moammar Khaddafy’s death. President Obama said his demise should send a message to other dictators around the world.

“This is somebody who, for 40 years, has terrorized his country and supported terrorism," Obama said. "And he had an opportunity during the Arab Spring to finally let loose of his grip on power and to peacefully transition into democracy. We gave him ample opportunity, and he wouldn't do it.” 

The president continued, “You never like to see anybody come to the kind of end that he did, but I think it obviously sends a strong message around the world to dictators that … people long to be free.” 

According to pool reports, the president’s Tonight Show taping lasted for 25 minutes, and he will be seen in three segments. It airs tonight on NBC.

There is a glimmer of bipartisan agreement in a perpetually divided DC. 

Today the Obama administration released two statements, saying the administration agrees with two (yes, two) of the bills Republicans are poised to bring to the House floor this week.

The first is a bill that repeals a 3% withholding on some payments that the government makes to private contractors. The 3% withholding rule, which was signed into law years ago, has been postponed multiple times. 

Repealing this law is a part of the President’s American Jobs Act, and it’s listed as one of the points of agreement the House Republicans wrote about in a letter to the President back in September.

The second bill lays out how to pay for the first bill.

“The effect of the repeal of the withholding requirement would be to avoid a decrease in cash flow to these contractors, which would allow them to retain these funds and use them to create jobs and pay suppliers,” explains the OMB.  

The issue of the 3% withholding has been a political football for the last few weeks, with the Senate voting down a repeal because Democrats didn’t agree with how the Senate Republicans wanted to pay for it. And last night, the speaker's communication’s office sent around an email basically daring the White House to oppose their version of the bill.

If the bills pass the House this week, the next narrative on this issue could be an odd one -- where the House and the White House are aligned against a Senate that may agree with the policy, but is notoriously slow to act.

On day three of the president’s bus tour to promote the American Jobs Act (or, perhaps more accurately, components of the American Jobs Act) Ground Force One pulled into Joint Base Langley-Eustis. 

With President Obama was his secret weapon, the now-popular first lady Michelle Obama, who was on hand to announce a new veterans’ jobs initiative. According to the White House, “The American Logistics Association and their 270 affiliate companies have committed to hiring 25,000 veterans and military spouses by the end of 2013.” 

The first lady called it the “largest coordinated effort by the private sector to hire veterans” that’s happened in years.

“This commitment puts us a quarter of the way toward reaching the president's challenge to the private sector to hire or train 100,000 vets and military spouses by the end of 2013,” she continued.

Michelle Obama's presence at the fifth official event of the bus tour (The president has made a bunch of unannounced stops along the way.), coupled with the Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell's (R-VA) attendance, caused somewhat of a tone shift in the president’s remarks. 

At most stops, the president has been unrelenting in blaming congressional Republicans for inaction on his jobs bill, and while at the military base, he relayed some of his frustration when he talking about the veterans benefits in his jobs bill.

“So far Congress hasn’t acted on this proposal,” he said. “But I want you to know that I’m pushing them a little bit.”

But the president made no calls for the audience of military members to take to their communications devices, as he had in recent speeches, to tell Congress how they feel. Absent too were the jokes about how he is breaking the American Jobs Act into smaller parts so Republicans can understand it.

The president and first lady also had a short private meeting before the event with McDonnell and his wife. In it, the governor thanked the president for his support of veterans (in military-rich Virginia) and pushed again on the issue of federal support for Louisa County, which was affected by the earthquake in August.

But that was just the sideshow to the main attraction of the day: the first lady. This was her first appearance at an American Jobs Act event with the president, and she kept her focus on today’s announcement, veterans and her husband.

And President Obama kept a little of his focus on her.

“I also want to thank my extraordinary wife and Dr. Jill Biden, our second lady, for leading the effort to support and honor our military families, and making today possible,” he said. “Give them a big round of applause.”

After the audience applauded, the president looked over at the his wife and said, “She does all this, and she looks cute.”

The president will change up his standard jobs stump speech today in reaction to Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) comments that the House will not bring the American Jobs Act to the floor in its entirety.

President Obama has called for Republicans  to explain what parts of the jobs package they take issue with but today, according to released excerpts, he’ll address Cantor directly.

“Yesterday, the Republican Majority Leader in Congress, Eric Cantor, said that right now, he won’t even let the jobs bill have a vote in the House of Representatives," Obama is expected to say at a fundraiser in Dallas tonight, according to prepared remarks sent out by the White House this morning. "He won’t even give it a vote. Well, I’d like Mr. Cantor to come down here to Dallas and explain what in this jobs bill he doesn’t believe in.” 

The president will continue, “Does he not believe in rebuilding America’s roads and bridges? Does he not believe in tax breaks for small businesses, or efforts to help veterans?”

He’s also expected to say, “Come tell the small business owners and workers in this community why you’d rather defend tax breaks for millionaires than tax cuts for the middle-class. And if you won’t do that, at least put this jobs bill up for a vote, so that the entire country knows exactly where every Member of Congress stands.”

Yesterday, during his weekly meeting with reporters, Cantor said Obama has his word that the House GOP will move on efforts to pass international Free Trade Agreements and review regulations that make it difficult for small businesses to raise capital, but that “this all-or-nothing approach is unreasonable.”

The White House is still answering questions about the president's somewhat controversial remarks at a Congressional Black Caucus dinner this weekend.

"I'm going to press on for the sake of all those families who are struggling right now," the president said before black lawmakers and guests on Saturday. "I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I am going to press on. I expect all of you to march with me and press on. Take off your bedroom slippers, put on your marching shoes. Shake it off. Stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying.  We are going to press on. We’ve got work to do, CBC."

It was meant to be a rallying cry near the end of his remarks, but the comment has become a flashpoint with lawmakers like Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA). "I'm not sure who the president was addressing," Waters told CBS on Monday. "I found that language a bit curious because the President spoke to the Hispanic caucus and certainly they're pushing him on immigration...He certainly didn't tell them to stop complaining and he would never say that to the gay and lesbian community who really pushed him on "don't ask, don't tell."

However, today, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney pointed out the president has used this language before.

Indeed, he's correct.

Two weeks ago, promoting his jobs plan at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, N.C., the President said:

"We’re bigger than the politics we’ve been putting up with. We’re patriots and pioneers and innovators and entrepreneurs. Through individual effort, but also through a commitment to one another, we have built an economy that is the engine and the envy of the world.  We’re not going to stop now. The time for hand-wringing is over. The time for moping around -- we’ve got to kick off our bedroom slippers and put on our marching shoes. We’ve got to get to work."

It was a line that also came near the end of that speech and induced applause in both crowds.

"I think there are individuals in every community who -- who might be unhappy with a political leader," Carney added.

In public, there doesn't seem to be a consensus among black lawmakers about what the president, who still enjoys strong approval ratings among black voters, meant. And based on interviews from MSNBC this week, black leaders had unique interpretations of the president's words.

"In the passion of the  moment, he talked about the complaining that he's hearing around the country inside the party," Chairman of the CBC Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) said. "And he's saying that that's not helpful. Join in. We need all of the members of this coalition working together, so that we can successfully deal with reelection."

And Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD), when asked about her reaction, said, "I was like most of the crowd there, incredibly enthusiastic by the president, the fighting  spirit the president was  showing. I actually went in to talk to a  group of seniors the following  day. And when I said to them, it's  time for us to stop complaining and to press on, they lit up the room just like the room in the Congressional Black Caucus. I think the President is right on message."