Investeens

The Republican clowns are beating each other up. Liberals are happier with the president. And the unemployment rate dropped to a three-year low. This is as good as it gets. 

As Senator John McCain accidentally endorses his former-rival Mr. Obama for another term at a Mitt Romney (“Pale Pastel” if you will) rally and more disturbing Rick Santorum soundbites are released, President Obama roared into the new year with some of the best news he has received in months -- an 8.5 percent unemployment rate, the lowest level since February 2009, the month after he stepped into office. Maybe it’s time to start calling the glass half full. 

Employers in the United States added 200,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said Friday, a report that came on the heels of a flurry of heartening economic news and signaled gathering momentum in the recovery. Consumer confidence lifted, factories stepped up production and small businesses showed signs of life. 

It was the sixth consecutive month that the economy showed a net gain of more than 100,000 jobs — not enough to restore employment to prerecession levels but enough, perhaps, to energize the president’s tired Democratic base. 

No sitting president has won re-election with an employment rate at 8.5 percent, but Mr. Obama is calculating that he can make a credible argument that he took over a country in an economic disaster and slowly walked it back.

But, his job approval also has been edging up in recent months. The Gallup tracking poll showed him with an approval rating of 45 percent Jan. 3-5 against monthly averages of 43 percent in December and November and a monthly average of 41 percent in each of the prior three months.

In recent months, as hopeful economic signs again began to emerge, Obama has muted his optimism to a whisper.

On Friday, however, he was willing to shout about it. "We're starting to rebound," he declared. "We're moving in the right direction."

And while the narrative is positive for Obama now, the economic situation could still sour things for him. Europe remains threatened with recession if its debt crisis deepens, oil prices may skyrocket with the looming Iranian conflict, and aggregate demand has yet to bloom. Macroeconomic Advisers, a forecasting company, projects growth of around 2 percent for the first half of this year, down from an estimate of 3.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 and just 1.8 percent in the third quarter. 

Congress needs to extend existing federal unemployment benefits and the payroll tax cut beyond their expiration in late February. To create jobs now while laying a foundation for future growth, the economy needs a broader jobs agenda, like the one proposed last year by President Obama, including government spending for public works, aid to state and local governments and an infrastructure bank.

Republicans have resisted just that. Mr. President, be bold, stick it to them. Don’t let them budge. 

“This is the real thing,” said Ian Shepherdson of High Frequency Economics. “This is finally the economy throwing off the shackles of the credit crunch.”

A lot more help is needed. WE CAN’T WAIT.