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President Barack Obama is facing a rising threat from potentially his toughest re-election opponent: the American economy.
The Labor Department reported yesterday that job growth slowed to 54,000 in May, down from 232,000 in April and the smallest gain in eight months. The unemployment rate rose to 9.1 percent, the highest level this year.
"If job creation doesn't continue on the pace it's been on in recent months, that's going to be an enormous hurdle for the president," said Tad Devine, a Democratic strategist who worked for the party's 2000 and 2004 presidential nominees.
The jobs report was the latest economic indicator suggesting the nation's recovery from the worst recession since the 1930s has hit a soft patch as Obama's 2012 campaign organization gets geared up and Republican candidates line up to vie for their party's presidential nomination.
Potential Republican candidates for the White House are making the economy an issue. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who formally announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination this week, said yesterday in New Hampshire that the number of people out of work is "simply inexcusable."
"The Obama policies have failed America," he said.
Source: CNN