Obama gets good jobs report to end startling week

FAIRFAX, Virginia (AP) — President Barack Obama celebrated some unexpected but much-needed good economic news Friday as the unemployment rate dropped to its lowest level since he took office.

Obama is vulnerable on the economy, which is growing at a snail's pace, and Republican rival Mitt Romney has sought to exploit that vulnerability in the race for the White House. He said Friday that the president still hasn't done enough to help millions of people who are out of work, and argued that the rate is low in part because some people have quit looking for work.

Still, the figures announced by the Labor Department — 114,000 new jobs last month to bring the unemployment rate to 7.8 percent — gave Obama fresh evidence on the heels of a disappointing debate performance earlier this week to argue that his economic policies are working.

"Today's news should give us some encouragement," Obama told thousands gathered in the rain for an afternoon rally at Cleveland State University, in the battleground state of Ohio. "It shouldn't be an excuse for the other side to try to talk down the economy just to try to score a few political points."

The unemployment rate fell from 8.1 percent in August, matching its level in January 2009 when Obama became president. There is one more monthly unemployment report before the Nov. 6 election, so the numbers could leave a lasting impact on Americans who are already casting ballots in states that allow early voting.

Because the American presidential race is decided in state-by-state votes rather than by popular vote, states that do not reliably vote either Republican or Democratic will likely decide the race. They include Ohio and Virginia, where Obama and Romney were campaigning.

"This is not what a real recovery looks like," the former Massachusetts governor and businessman said, an analysis echoed by other Republicans throughout the day. "We created fewer jobs in September than in August, and fewer jobs in August than in July, and we've lost over 600,000 manufacturing jobs since President Obama took office," Romney added.

"If not for all the people who have simply dropped out of the labor force, the real unemployment rate would be closer to 11%," he said.

Incumbent and challenger alike campaigned in battleground states during the day, each man starting out in Virginia before the president headed for Ohio and Romney flew to Florida.

Recent polls have shown Obama with leads in most if not all of the battleground states, although the impact of Wednesday night's debate and of the drop in unemployment could well change some public opinion.

Both campaigns kept up a television advertising war with a price tag approaching $750 million when outside group spending is included.

Romney launched three new commercials during the day, one aimed at voters in Nevada, a second targeted to Ohio and a third that says Obama claims "he is creating jobs, but he's really creating debt," running up deficits and spending unnecessarily. "He's not just wasting it. He's borrowing it and then wasting it," the narrator says.

The campaign did not say where it would air.

Romney's strong showing in the campaign's first general election debate cheered Republicans who had worried about his campaign, and forced Obama's aides into a rare public acknowledgement that they would have to adjust their strategy for the next encounter.

The jobs report was the main flashpoint of the day, and Obama scolded Republicans for their reaction.

"Today's news certainly is not an excuse to try to talk down the economy to score a few political points," he said as Romney and most Republican lawmakers emphasized portions of the report other than the drop in the unemployment rate to the same level as when the president took office.

Republicans made it clear they wanted to keep the focus on Wednesday night's debate, when Romney appeared confident as he pitched his case for a new approach to the economy and Obama turned in a performance that even some Democrats conceded was subpar.