June 4, 2012
Perception turns against Obama
Weak jobs report and tightening poll numbers have increased perceptions that President Obama may be more vulnerable in November than once believed.
First Thoughts: A perception-changer
Friday’s jobs report was a perception-changer… This is going to be a veryclose race… But here’s something about perception: It can always change again… The White House’s current dilemma after Friday’s jobs numbers: What does it do now?... Here’s one answer: hit Romney with a new TV ad… One day out until tomorrow’s Wisconsin recall… Breaking down Tuesday’s other races… And Elizabeth Warren gets back on track a bit.
By NBC's Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Brooke Brower
*** A perception-changer: As we and our NBC/WSJ pollsters have been saying for the past few months, this presidential contest is a 50%-50% race. But many, including plenty of Democrats, haven’t believed it. Yet Friday’s disappointing jobs report -- just 69,000 jobs created in May and the unemployment ticked up to 8.2% -- changed that perception in the blink of an eye, driving home for some holdouts the very real chance that President Obama could very well lose. It wouldn’t be correct to say he’s the underdog; he still has plenty of advantages as the incumbent, and the electoral map is probably his biggest. But what Friday did was erase the perception that Obama is the clear favorite heading into November. It also kick-started a new round of the Acela Corridor’s “What’s wrong with Obama?” handwringing (see: Dowd, Maureen.)
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But here is the White House’s current dilemma: What do they do now? For one thing, they hope the May report was just a blip and that things can change, as we said above. The president on Friday used a phrase we hadn’t heard from him before about, waiting for the fever to break, regarding the economy. Again, that falls under the category of simply “hope.”
More: http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/04/12047995-first-thoughts-a-perception-changer?lite
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