AND THE TITANIC IS UNSINKABLE, CAPTAIN SMITH – AT 8:36 A.M. ET:  The Obama political team is very highly regarded, but illusions like this do nothing to sustain its image.  From The Hill:

President Obama’s senior political adviser David Plouffe said Wednesday that people won’t vote in 2012 based on the unemployment rate.

Plouffe should probably hope that’s the case, since dismal job figures aren’t expected to get any better for Obama and the economy on Friday.

Most economists expect a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to show that the nation added about 100,000 jobs in June. That’s not enough to keep up with population growth, let alone lower the unemployment rate or make a dent in the 9 million jobs lost during the so called Great Recession.

It’s looking more and more like Obama will have to do something no president has done since Franklin Roosevelt: Win reelection with unemployment around 8 percent.

Ronald Reagan, another president Obama is sometimes compared with, was reelected in 1984 when unemployment was 7.2 percent. Obama isn’t likely to see a number that low.

BULLETIN:  Just in as this is being written:  The U.S. economy added only a pathetic 18,000 jobs in June, much, much worse than the expected 100,000.  The unemployment rate has gone up to 9.2 percent.

This may interfere with the president's golf game.

July 8, 2011