.jpg)
Team Romney releases a routine restatement of the gritty facts of the economy now established at 1.5% annualised GDP growth. Nothing fancy about the ad; and it isn't especially negative. More accurate to say that the fresh video is tediously repetitive. Out of work, despairing, frustrated. The frame for the ad is Candidate Obama claiming rhetorically that the Obama plan to grow the economy out of recession "worked." The Romney campaign holds that if it stays on this road of "the worst economic recovery" in American history,then the voters will reject Obama in November. Perhaps. Speaking Bill Whalen, Hoover, re the OFA campaign's clever solution to the jobless dilemma. OFA has identified that most all of the swing states have enjoyed declining jobless numbers year over year. For example, Florida in 2010 was 11.4% and today it is 8.6%; Pennsylvania in 2010 was 8.7% and today it is 7.5%; Virginia in 2010 was Virginia 7.0% and today it is 5.7%. Therefore, OFA can claim relative improvement, can argue, "Stay the course." Will it work? Bill Whalen says that the July rate, due for release on Friday August 3 at 8 pm ET, will contain the final numbers of the trend for the 2Q. A substandard report will tip almost all of the swing states into flat-lining or worse. Bill Whalen says this will give the Romney camp another weapon, the "bad trend" argument. The facts already establish the bad trend. The retail sales and Fed regional reports all point to a slowdown starting the 2Q and continuing. Examine the "Sale" signs in the mall store windows. OFA is getting marked down quickly. (Below update: see Karl Rove's American Crossroads taking the Scott Pelley quote, "This is the worst economic recovery..." and going nuke negative on POTUS by name and face. The medley of hits, "The private sector is fine" combined with "You didn't build that" combined with "The worst economic recovery" is turning into a wall of grief for OFA. August 3 is yet another chance for OFA to get lucky. The consensus number is plus 100,000 jobs. Will the BLS number beat the Street estimates?)