Obama confident of economic recovery despite job losses

President Barack Obama said Friday that September’s worse-than-expected
unemployment numbers have led him and his staff to “explore any and all
additional measures” that might aid in economic recovery.

Friday’s news that the national unemployment rate reached 9.8 percent after another 260,000 jobs were lost in September tracks with Obama’s prediction that the rate will hit 10 percent by the end of the year, but Republicans were intensely critical of Obama’s efforts.

{mosads}The news came as Obama was in the air returning to Washington after a whirlwind, though ultimately unsuccessful, trip to Denmark to try to win the 2016 Olympic Games for his adopted hometown of Chicago.

After landing, Obama came to the Rose Garden, where he told reporters that the U.S. will build a 21st-century economy that includes jobs for anyone who wants one.

“Of that I’m most confident and determined,” Obama said.

The president said the new unemployment rate is “a sobering reminder that progress comes in fits and starts, and that we’re going to need to grind out this recovery step by step.”

Republicans dinged Obama for flying to Copenhagen to make his Olympics pitch while other pressing issues waited for him in Washington.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said that while he is “disappointed with the IOC’s [International Olympic Committee’s] decision, I look forward to the president returning stateside so that he can refocus his efforts on the growing unemployment crisis that was highlighted by today’s monthly jobs report.”

Steele said the country needs “the president’s undivided attention.”

The White House fired back at Republican critics, with White House press secretary Robert Gibbs taking on Steele by name while talking with reporters on the return flight aboard Air Force One.

“I want to know, what was Michael Steele doing about 1:50 a.m. when we landed — 1:50 a.m. in the morning when we landed in Denmark?” Gibbs said. “I can only imagine that somebody — they probably had a press release cued up that said if Chicago didn’t get the Olympics and the president didn’t get to go. You know, there’s people trying to solve problems and there’s people playing games, and I think we know where a bunch of that is.”