If the conventional wisdom still holds and the vote in November will turn on "jobs, jobs, jobs" (rather than Mendacious Mitt's lies), then September's jobs report is a big win for President Obama. With 114,000 new private sector jobs added, the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8% in September. Adding to the positive news is the fact that the Labor Department revised upward the jobs numbers for July and August.
One of the Rethugs' main lines of attack on the economy is that the President promised to lower the unemployment rate below 8% (it was actually his former economic advisor Christina Romer who predicted a robust stimulus would keep the rate below 8%). Now that it's below 8%, what will they say now? Almost certainly, there will be the usual Rethuglican conspiracy theories about manipulation of the numbers before the election, potentially aided by a cynical, lazy political media. But the persuadable public will take note that the numbers are moving -- albeit slowly -- in the right direction.
UPDATE: Right on schedule, Rethugs, who've been cheering bad economic numbers when they're not actively obstructing legislation to improve the economy, are alleging the numbers were cooked. Unless they have solid evidence, it's nothing more than slander.
