Cavuto and the Jobs Report

The Friday jobs report was a disappointment to the Obama administration. The general expectation at the end of 2013 was that this would be the year the economy took off for sustained growth. Adding only 74,000 jobs in December and the political fallout was the subject of my most recent interview with Neil Cavuto on his show.

Cavuto and Your World is becoming one of Fox News’ most watchable shows with interesting interviews on hot topics. He tends to avoid the conventional and looks for a special slant, and he likes to challenge his guests’ views.

A couple of points I made in the interview:

1. The President and Democrats are anxious to have a robust economy to distract voters from the continuing negative outlook on the operation of the ACA. President Obama’s low approval rating and the significant decline in support for ObamaCare is currently dragging down the entire Democratic ticket. These weak job numbers undermine their talking points. (Blog: Obama –“Was 2013 Your Worst Year?”, Dec. 23, 2013). 
2. Since the passage of the budget compromise in early December, Republicans have overtaken Obama in public’s perception of who’s better able to manage the economy. A major problem for Democrats. (Blog: Washington and Republicans Benefit From Budget Deal, Jan. 10, 2014). 
3. The administration strongly pushed back on the perception the jobs report presages continued sluggish growth arguing the numbers are highly variable, subject to revision and reflect December’s exceptionally bad weather.

Not only are they worried that the soft job numbers undermine the start of the 2014 election cycle, but the White House is now laser-like, focused on maintaining a positive narrative leading to the State of the Union address (January 28), with the intervening weeks filled with pre-announcements of new initiatives, successes in current programs and the required follow-up media tour.

The theme of “we’re back” just took hit.