FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — Mitt Romney was still celebrating his widely praised debate performance when the campaign lurched in a
different direction.
Unemployment dropped last month to the lowest level since 2009, and suddenly it was President Barack Obama's turn to smile.
In a race dominated by the weak economy,
Obama said Friday the creation of 114,000 jobs in September, coupled
with a drop
in unemployment to 7.8 percent, was "a reminder that this country
has come too far to turn back now." Jabbing at his rival's
plans, he declared, "We've made too much progress to return to the
policies that caused this crisis in the first place."
But Romney saw little to like in the day's new government numbers.
"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. Those
three states, along with Colorado, Nevada, New Hampshire,
Wisconsin, North Carolina and Iowa make up the nine battleground
states where the race is likely to be decided. Among them,
they account for 110 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the
White House.
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.
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 GOP 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.