Romney Campaign Press Release - The Return of the Audacity of Indifference

"More Americans have lost their jobs under President Obama than at any other time in modern history. After Friday's disappointing jobs report, the White House is trying to spin the nearly 23 million Americans struggling to find work as a good thing. For the five million Americans who have been jobless for six months or more and the millions of Americans who have been pushed out of the labor force, the trajectory isn't good. That is President Obama's economic legacy, and that is why he will be a one-term president." —Andrea Saul, Romney Campaign Spokesperson

Despite Friday's Anemic Jobs Report, Senior White House Advisers Insist The "Trajectory" Of The Economy Is Good:

Senior Obama Adviser David Plouffe: "We Are Definitely On A Trajectory That Suggests The Economy Is Recovering." "The president's advisers said it made little sense to get caught up in the vagaries of the job report, as long as the economy's overall trend was upward. ... ‘It's less important to focus on month-to-month than on the general trend,' said David Plouffe, a senior political adviser to the president. ‘We are definitely on a trajectory that suggests the economy is recovering.'" (Mark Landler, "On Jobs, Obama And Romney Argue Over Fullness Of The Glass," The New York Times, 4/6/12)

• FLASHBACK: Last July, President Obama Also Said The "Trajectory" Of The Economy Was Good. OBAMA: "What people want to know is that we're moving in the right direction even if they're frustrated with how fast we're moving, we need to speed it up but I think the trajectory's a good one." (WBNS-TV, 7/20/11)

What Is The Real "Trajectory" Of The Economy? Declining Job Gains, Record-Low Labor Force Participation, And Record-Level Unemployment:

March Was The Unprecedented Thirty-Eighth Consecutive Month With Unemployment Above 8%. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, www.bls.gov, 4/9/12)

The Number Of Americans Participating In The Labor Force "Remains Stuck Near Record Lows." "Adding only 120,000 jobs in March means the unemployment rate ticked down to 8.2%, but all of that was due to a decline in the labor force participation rate, which remains stuck near record lows at 63.6%." (Agustino Fontevecchia, "Weak Jobs Report Puts QE3-Pressure Back On Bernanke," Forbes, 4/6/12)

Chronic Unemployment Remains At Levels Unmatched In Recorded History. "The jobs report also showed little change in the plight of workers who have been out of work for six months or more. The number of long-term unemployed was essentially unchanged at 5.3 million, and they account for 42.5 percent of the overall nation's jobless population, the report said." (Michael A. Fletcher, "U.S. Hiring Slowed Sharply In March," The Washington Post, 4/6/12)

Not A Good Trajectory — Job Creation Has Fallen Off In The Last Two Months. Nonfarm employers added 13% fewer jobs in February than in January, and added even fewer jobs — 50% less — in March than in February. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, www.bls.gov, 4/9/12)

This Is Not The First Time That Plouffe And Other Senior Obama Advisers Have Tried To Pretend Americans Don't Care About The Weak Employment Market:

July 2011: Plouffe Said Americans Don't "View The Economy Through The Prism Of GDP Or Unemployment Rates Or Even Monthly Jobs Numbers." "The White House's top political adviser [is] downplaying the significance of the unemployment rate in the 2012 election ... While history has shown the unemployment rate to be a leading indicator of an incumbent's success, [David] Plouffe said Americans won't base their votes on it. ‘The average American does not view the economy through the prism of GDP or unemployment rates or even monthly jobs numbers,' Plouffe said." (Julianna Goldman, "Unemployment Rate Won't Hobble Obama's Re-election, White House Aide Says," Bloomberg, 7/7/11)

When Confronted Last Summer With The Obama Administration's Economic Record, Treasury Secretary Geithner Called It "Ridiculous." NBC's DAVID GREGORY: "Here's the chart of the president's economic record. This is based on government information — the Treasury Department, U.S. Bureau of Labor Stats. Unemployment 7.3% [on] Inauguration Day, up to 9.2%, latest report, up 26%. You see the debt figures up 35%." GEITHNER: "David, let me just say, that's a ridiculous table." (NBC's "Meet The Press," 7/10/11)

June 2011: Senior Obama Adviser David Axelrod Said Unemployment Numbers Represented "A Meaningless Discussion" For The "Average Person." "‘One monthly job figures are more robust than expected and everybody goes tearing up the one direction, and the next month they're not as good and they go in the other,' Axelrod said, referring to the negative reaction that greeted news of May's anemic jobs growth. ‘For the average person this is a meaningless discussion, what is meaningful is what they experience in their own lives.'" (Sam Stein, "David Axelrod Downplays Bad Jobs News, Says Austan Goolsbee To Play Big Reelection Role," The Huffington Post, 6/8/11)