Speaking Sunday, President Obama presented his case for re-election, telling supporters that he deserves a second term.
“I deserve a second term, but we’re not done,” Mr. Obama said during a pre-Super Bowl interview with NBC’s Matt Lauer.
Mr. Obama, who is preparing for a tough bid for re-election, cited a recent unemployment report released earlier this week by the U.S. Department of Labor, which shows the nation’s rate of unemployment at 8.3 percent — down from 8.5 percent.
“We’ve made progress,” said Mr. Obama. “The key right now is to just make sure we don’t start turning in a new direction that could throw that progress off.”
“When you and I sat down, we were losing 750,000 jobs a month. . . now we’re creating 250,000 jobs,” added Mr. Obama. “We’ve made progress. The key now is to make sure we don’t start turning in the wrong direction.”
The president, who has sought to downplay Republican criticism, has repeatedly expressed support for his administration’s economic policies in recent months. Speaking in Virginia on Friday, Mr. Obama said he remains concerned with the current pace of economic growth, however, he added that the latest economic reports shows the U.S. is headed in the right direction.
“The recovery is speeding up,” Mr. Obama said at the time. “We can’t go back to the policies that led to the recession.”
He called the drop in the unemployment rate to 8.3 percent “more good news about our economy” while warning that “these numbers will go up and down in the coming months, and there’s still far too many Americans who need a job.”
The economy is likely to remain a central issue throughout the 2012 campaign. In a statement released Friday, former Massachusetts governor — the Republican presidential front-runner — slammed the Obama administration,
“This is the 36th straight month with unemployment above the red line your own administration drew,” Mr. Romney said. “And if you take into account all the people who are struggling for work or who have just stopped looking, the real unemployment rate is over 15 percent.”
