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| Obama and Clinton hit the trail as poor jobs figures released – US politics live | Obama and Clinton hit the trail as poor jobs figures released – US politics live |
| (40 minutes later) | |
| 12.01pm: Clinton refers to Walker and his supporters repeatedly as "this divide-and-conquer, no-compromise crowd." | |
| He is decrying the disintegration of national politics into an elaborate machine of gridlock. He accuses "them" – Republicans – of making everything about Us vs. Them. | |
| "I'm grateful to you. You voted for me twice." | |
| Cheers. | |
| "In 1992, when Wisconsin voted for me – if this were a divide-and-conquer state, you would not have voted for me. You want to know why? Because Wisconsin was one of two states that was actually doing better in 1992 than it was in 1988. | |
| "But you understood that over the long run, we had to build a nation of shared prosperity, shared responsibility: one nation!" | |
| Clinton makes a final call for "electing Tom Barrett governor!" | |
| "Thank you!" | |
| Cue Bono and "Beautiful Day." He's out. | |
| 11.57am: Bill Clinton is stumping for Tom Barrett for governor of Wisconsin. | |
| "To have a divide-and-conquer strategy is nuts." | |
| "That is what is wrong with America today. It is not the road back. It is a road to a dead end. There's a reason all these people are pouring money in here, running all these negative ads against [Mayor Barrett].... Why are they doing this? Because times are tough and you've got to get up every day... and when people are uncertain and afraid, it's easy to get them confused and divided." | |
| "Look around this crowd today. That is our strength. We are still younger than Europe, younger than Japan. In 20 years we'll be younger than China." | |
| He accuses Walker of supporting laws to stop young people, the poor, immigrants and minorities to vote. | |
| "Show up Tuesday and elect Tom Barrett governor!" | |
| 11.50am: Clinton says the race in Wisconsin is of national consequence. | |
| Wisconsin, he says, is "America's battleground, between people who want to pull together to solve problems, and people who want to divide and conquer." | |
| 11.45am: Bill Clinton takes the mic in Wisconsin. | |
| He shows off the notes he wrote to prepare for the speech, to prove no one is feeding him words and he's speaking from the heart. | |
| When did Clinton use notes? This is obviously some kind of ploy. | |
| "The great thing about not being president is you can say whatever you want." | |
| The crowd cheers. They love him. | |
| "I was thinking about all my Wisconsin memories today. I remember being on a little farm, with an Irish farmer with nine children singing 'Danny Boy' to me..." | |
| OK get comfortable. | |
| 11.42am: The Guardian's Gary Younge is in Milwaukee for the Clinton rally against Gov. Scott Walker. | |
| "Placards saying lets take the 'con' out of 'Wisconsin,' he writes. "Currently singing 'Hit the road Scott, and don't you come back no more.'" | |
| 11.38am: The sole entry in Mitt Romney's public schedule today is a fundraiser in Los Angeles at 6pm this evening. Here's hoping he makes it: | |
| Romney stuck in LA traffic. When does USSS get traffic control? | |
| — Emily Friedman (@EmilyABC) June 1, 2012 | |
| 11.36am: Nate Silver offers up a line on unemployment the White House could maybe try out: | |
| This jobs report is no big deal. Every economy has a few bad decades. | |
| — Nate Silver (@fivethirtyeight) June 1, 2012 | |
| 11.31am: My colleague Dominic Rushe has the White House response to today's dismal jobs report: | |
| The White House moved swiftly to dampen the political fallout of the report... Alan B Krueger, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said: "Problems in the job market were long in the making and will not be solved overnight. The economy lost jobs for 25 straight months beginning in February 2008, and over 8m jobs were lost as a result of the Great Recession. We are still fighting back from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression." | |
| Just a bad month, then? Dominic asks a business prof and an economist: | |
| Betsey Stevenson, professor of business and public policy at Wharton business school, said: "This is a very bad report. It changes where I thought the US economy was." | |
| Gus Faucher, senior economist of PNC Financial Services, said he had been shocked by the numbers. "They were much worse than we had expected. There was a big drop in construction [down 28,000 in May] which is worrying, wage growth was weak. It is hard to see anything good in this report," he said. | |
| 11.05am: BuzzFeed's Rosie Gray is on the scene in Milwaukee where Bill Clinton is scheduled to speak. | 11.05am: BuzzFeed's Rosie Gray is on the scene in Milwaukee where Bill Clinton is scheduled to speak. |
| This dude with his "support Scott walker, not union thugs" getting into repeated arguments w/ ppl here twitter.com/RosieGray/stat… | This dude with his "support Scott walker, not union thugs" getting into repeated arguments w/ ppl here twitter.com/RosieGray/stat… |
| — Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) June 1, 2012 | — Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) June 1, 2012 |
| Wisconsin's recall election has taken on a national profile, with national fundraising, the participation of national political figures and national media coverage. At the heart of the fight is Gov. Scott Walker's attempt to cut his state loose from budget commitments that labor unions see as basic to the well-being of anyone employed by the state. The clash has ramifications for the broader fight between the corporation and the worker. | |
| Walker has raised more than $30 million from across the country and challenger Tom Barrett has taken in more than $4 million. The vote may also be a sort of dry run for the presidential election, Monica Davey writes in the New York Times: | Walker has raised more than $30 million from across the country and challenger Tom Barrett has taken in more than $4 million. The vote may also be a sort of dry run for the presidential election, Monica Davey writes in the New York Times: |
| Broadly, the results will be held up as an omen for the presidential race in the fall, specifically for President Obama's chances of capturing this Midwestern battleground — one that he easily won in 2008 but that Republicans nearly swept in the midterm elections of 2010. | Broadly, the results will be held up as an omen for the presidential race in the fall, specifically for President Obama's chances of capturing this Midwestern battleground — one that he easily won in 2008 but that Republicans nearly swept in the midterm elections of 2010. |
| 10.43am: He's scheduled to speak in a half hour at Pere Marquette park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, alongside gubernatorial hopeful Tom Barrett. | 10.43am: He's scheduled to speak in a half hour at Pere Marquette park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, alongside gubernatorial hopeful Tom Barrett. |
| Bill Clinton's remarks on Piers Morgan (temporarily the Harvey Weinstein show) last night about Mitt Romney's "sterling business career" were a reminder of how the former president can go off the leash while campaigning. | Bill Clinton's remarks on Piers Morgan (temporarily the Harvey Weinstein show) last night about Mitt Romney's "sterling business career" were a reminder of how the former president can go off the leash while campaigning. |
| After candidate Obama defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2008 South Carolina Democratic primary, a visibly annoyed Clinton told reporters that Jesse Jackson had won South Carolina too – a huffy and racially charged remark that got all the wrong kinds of attention. In one of his first interviews after Hillary lost to Obama, the former president went on TV and called John McCain a "great man" and said Sarah Palin was an "instinctively effective candidate." | After candidate Obama defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2008 South Carolina Democratic primary, a visibly annoyed Clinton told reporters that Jesse Jackson had won South Carolina too – a huffy and racially charged remark that got all the wrong kinds of attention. In one of his first interviews after Hillary lost to Obama, the former president went on TV and called John McCain a "great man" and said Sarah Palin was an "instinctively effective candidate." |
| But is it really a screw-up for Clinton to say that Romney had a sterling career? Or does it subtly make the "instinctive" argument the Obama campaign is trying to make: that Romney's a rich guy, a silver-spooner, and out of touch? | But is it really a screw-up for Clinton to say that Romney had a sterling career? Or does it subtly make the "instinctive" argument the Obama campaign is trying to make: that Romney's a rich guy, a silver-spooner, and out of touch? |
| 10.30am: Wall Street's take on the jobs report this morning: | 10.30am: Wall Street's take on the jobs report this morning: |
| BREAKING: Dow Jones industrial average drops 200 points after dismal report on US jobs. -BW | BREAKING: Dow Jones industrial average drops 200 points after dismal report on US jobs. -BW |
| — The Associated Press (@AP) June 1, 2012 | — The Associated Press (@AP) June 1, 2012 |
| To say the jobs report comes at a bad time for Obama is to understate the case. At the end of the Nato summit in Chicago last Monday, the president was asked about his attacks on Romney's record at Bain Capital – and how those attacks had been undercut by supposed Obama surrogate Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, N.J. | To say the jobs report comes at a bad time for Obama is to understate the case. At the end of the Nato summit in Chicago last Monday, the president was asked about his attacks on Romney's record at Bain Capital – and how those attacks had been undercut by supposed Obama surrogate Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, N.J. |
| Obama defended his attacks on Bain. "That's what the election is going to be about," he said. It was the same message David Axelrod tried to send on the steps of the Massachusetts state house yesterday: Mitt Romney amassed personal mountains of money while failing to do anything for the average earner. | Obama defended his attacks on Bain. "That's what the election is going to be about," he said. It was the same message David Axelrod tried to send on the steps of the Massachusetts state house yesterday: Mitt Romney amassed personal mountains of money while failing to do anything for the average earner. |
| It will be much more difficult for Obama's message to gain traction if it has to compete with headlines about a slumping national economy. You can't brag about pulling the country out of the economic ditch Bush dug if the car's still in the ditch. | It will be much more difficult for Obama's message to gain traction if it has to compete with headlines about a slumping national economy. You can't brag about pulling the country out of the economic ditch Bush dug if the car's still in the ditch. |
| 10.00am: Good morning and welcome to our Friday liveblog politics coverage. It's shaping up to be a colorful day on the campaign trail: Barack Obama and Bill Clinton both have scheduled events and unfortunately Donald Trump will speak at the North Carolina State Republican Convention. Tom McCarthy here in New York and here's where things stand: | 10.00am: Good morning and welcome to our Friday liveblog politics coverage. It's shaping up to be a colorful day on the campaign trail: Barack Obama and Bill Clinton both have scheduled events and unfortunately Donald Trump will speak at the North Carolina State Republican Convention. Tom McCarthy here in New York and here's where things stand: |
| • New labor department figures show the unemployment rate creeped up to 8.2% in May as the economy created a paltry 69,000 jobs, less than half of what economists expected. That's bad news for the incumbent president. | • New labor department figures show the unemployment rate creeped up to 8.2% in May as the economy created a paltry 69,000 jobs, less than half of what economists expected. That's bad news for the incumbent president. |
| • Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney got a public boost last night from former President Bill Clinton*. Clinton sought to erase any notion that Romney is unqualified for the presidency. "There's no question that in terms of getting up and going to the office and, you know, basically performing the essential functions of the office, the man who has been governor and had a sterling business career crosses the qualification threshold," Clinton told Harvey Weinstein, who inexplicably was guest-hosting Piers Morgan's CNN talk show. | • Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney got a public boost last night from former President Bill Clinton*. Clinton sought to erase any notion that Romney is unqualified for the presidency. "There's no question that in terms of getting up and going to the office and, you know, basically performing the essential functions of the office, the man who has been governor and had a sterling business career crosses the qualification threshold," Clinton told Harvey Weinstein, who inexplicably was guest-hosting Piers Morgan's CNN talk show. |
| *Bill Clinton is a Democrat. | *Bill Clinton is a Democrat. |
| • Romney released a new campaign ad, A Better Day, featuring construction cranes, a welder, a man in a hard hat on a rooftop next to an American flag and a little girl wearing a soft-looking hat. We'll take a closer look at that in a bit. | • Romney released a new campaign ad, A Better Day, featuring construction cranes, a welder, a man in a hard hat on a rooftop next to an American flag and a little girl wearing a soft-looking hat. We'll take a closer look at that in a bit. |
| • The recall election for governor of Wisconsin is down to its final few days, and the aforementioned Bill Clinton is wheels down in the Badger State to try to help challenger Tom Barrett overcome his polling deficit. That's right, Clinton hits the hustings – read all about it right here. | • The recall election for governor of Wisconsin is down to its final few days, and the aforementioned Bill Clinton is wheels down in the Badger State to try to help challenger Tom Barrett overcome his polling deficit. That's right, Clinton hits the hustings – read all about it right here. |