MINNEAPOLIS - No matter the news, the season is presidential politics.
Friday's jobs report from the Labor Department showing our nation stuck at 8.2 percent unemployment is a win for the man looking to unseat the current Commander in Chief.
"He has a clear opening with jobs and the economy here," Hamline University Professor and Political Analyst David Schultz said.
The likely Republican Nominee, Mitt Romney, will likely channel Bill Clinton in these final months when it comes to his campaign message and say, "It's the economy, stupid."
"The president's policies have not gotten America working again and the President has to stand up and take responsibility for it," Romney said on the campaign trail Friday morning.
President Barack Obama has the tougher task here. He can't deny the numbers, nor will they be able to rise significantly before November.
On top of all that, Schultz says, July is the time voters begin to decide who they are going to vote for.
"There is pretty good evidence that the unemployment figures around the beginning of the third quarter have a huge impact on how voters think about the election," Schultz commented.
What that means is Obama has to play to his strengths talk about his victories in foreign policy and what he feels he has done right when it comes to jobs and the economy.
He did that Friday in Ohio where a half a million jobs in manufacturing were regained since the recession, but he also was candid that more must be done to get Americans back to work.
"I want to get back to a time when middle class families and those working to get into the middle class have some basic security. That's our goal so we have to grow the economy even faster and we've got to put even more people back to work," the President said.
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