Jobs Report ‘Not Good Enough,’ President Obama Says
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JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images(PORTSBOUTH, N.H.) — President Obama said Friday’s news that the economy added just 96,000 jobs last month was “not good enough” and that “we need to create more jobs faster” to recover from the recession.
“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. And there’s a lot more that we can do,” the president told a crowd of 6,000 at his first campaign stop of the day in Portsmouth, N.H.
On the heels of the Democratic Convention, Friday’s worse-than-expected jobs report serves as a stark reminder of the economic reality facing voters and brings the state of the economy to the forefront of the debate.
“I’m not going to pretend that this path is quick or easy. And by the way, I never have,” Obama said of the recovery.
As he did in his speech last night, the president asked voters for four more years to right the economy and attacked his GOP rivals for failing to outline specific proposals to create jobs.
“Our friends at the Republican Convention, they talked a lot about what they thought was wrong with America,” he said. “They didn’t tell you what they’d do to make it right. They want your vote, but they don’t want to show you their plan. And that’s because they know their plan won’t sell.”
Obama called on Republicans to pass his jobs plan to jumpstart the economy and urged supporters to ask lawmakers to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the middle class.
Hoping to sustain the momentum of the convention, the president and vice president are campaigning in New Hampshire and Iowa with their wives Friday, marking the first time this year that they have hit the trail together.
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