Obama, McCain Use Jobs Data
To Promote Economic Agendas

By NICK TIMIRAOS

Barack Obama and John McCain seized on Friday's jobs report to promote their own economic agendas and score some points against each other.

The report that the U.S. jobless rate jumped unexpectedly in August to 6.1% of the work force, a five-year high and the eighth-consecutive month of declining nonfarm payrolls, comes as Sen. Obama, the Democratic nominee, has sought to portray his Republican rival, Sen. McCain, as out-of-touch and out of ideas on the economy.

Associated Press

Sen. Barack Obama spoke about the economy during a visit to the Schott Glass in Duryea, Pa., Friday.

Sen. Obama immediately put the gloomy jobs statistic to work. At a town hall meeting with a hand-picked audience at a glass factory in Duryea, Pa., he reviewed the statistic for the crowd before launching the attack. "People are anxious because of the kind of statistics you see released today," Sen. Obama said. "If you watched the Republican National Convention over the last three days, you wouldn't know that we have the highest unemployment rate in the last five years…They spent a lot of time trying to run me down. What they didn't do was talk about you."

The Obama campaign smells blood on the issue. Public polls show that voters prefer the Illinois senator on the issue of the economy over his Republican rival. "John McCain said the other day he thought the economy was fundamentally sound," Sen. Obama said at the Duryea event. "What's more fundamental than having a job? I just think he doesn't get it."

Sen. McCain, who accepted his party's nomination Thursday night at the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn., faces an uphill challenge running as candidate of the incumbent party during a period of rising unemployment, something that cost re-elections for President George H.W. Bush in 1992 and before that, President Jimmy Carter in 1980.

MORE ON THE CAMPAIGN

	Extended Campaign Season: See how the campaign season changed from 1952 to 2008.
	What the Candidates Said: Compare some memorable nomination acceptance speeches.
	The Parties' Parties: Check data on conventions' funds, big donors and locations.
	Obama's VP Pick: See highlights of Joe Biden's life and career, plus details on his political record.
	McCain's VP Pick: See highlights of Sarah Palin's life and career, plus details on her political record.
	Electoral College Calculator: Your predictions, past results and experts' opinions.
	The Money Race: See month-by-month fund-raising and spending totals for the candidates.
	Mind the -- Age -- Gap: Issues that may surface in the 25-year age gap between the candidates.
	Ad Campaign: Video gallery of television ads run by the candidates and outside groups.
	Policy Battle Lines: See charts, speech analysis and video on the policy battlefronts.

The Arizona senator acknowledged the jobs report head-on during a stop in Cedarburg, Wis., on Friday. "My friends, a little straight talk. A little straight talk. These are tough times. Today, the jobs report is another reminder," he said. "All you ever asked of government is to stand on your side, not in your way, and that's what I intend to do: stand on your side and fight for your futures."

Sen. McCain in a statement jabbed at his rival for proposing to repeal the Bush tax cuts for top income earners and to raise the capital gains tax. "When our economy is hurting, the last thing we should do is raise taxes as Barack Obama plans to do and has done," he said in the statement.

Nonfarm payrolls declined by 84,000 in August and the Labor Department said that the declines were broad-based across multiple industries and educational levels. Unlike previous unemployment increases, which were concentrated among younger workers, last month's joblessness gains came from workers above age 25. (See related article.)

The Arizona senator did himself little help last month when, in an interview with a radio talk-show host, he said, "I still believe the fundamentals of our economy are strong. We've got terribly big challenges now… But we're still the most innovative, the most productive, the greatest exporter, the greatest importer."

Sen. McCain echoed a theme from his Thursday night address in St. Paul, Minn., arguing that Washington wasn't paying attention to the concerns of average Americans. "Some Americans have been left behind in the changing economy, and it often seems your government hasn't even noticed," Sen. McCain said. He repeated his calls for additional government funding of worker re-training programs.

Sen. McCain supporters at the Cedarburg rally seemed unfazed by the jobs report. "We need to stop ... moaning and crying about government doing something for us," said Brenda Kiehnau, 37 years old, who works in design and engineering. "I think McCain will be honest," she said.

As Sen. Obama prepared to tour the Schott North America Inc. glass company in northeastern Pennsylvania, his campaign surrogates jumped on the jobs report to bash President George W. Bush and the current administration -- and by extension, Sen. McCain. "Job growth, it's not merely stalled, it's going in reverse," said Jared Bernstein, an Obama campaign economic adviser, in a conference call with reporters.

On the same call, Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill called for Sen. McCain to "step up" and swiftly endorse a second stimulus package pushed by Sen. Obama.