Poor US jobs report puts Obama on back foot

NASHUA: Mitt Romney used a terrible US jobs report to hammer President Barack Obama on the economy Friday, leaving the White House incumbent flat-footed on the defining issue of the 2012 race.

The Republican nominee seized on weak employment data to reclaim momentum on the campaign trail and double down on Obama, whose speech at the Democratic National Convention the previous night was criticized for lacking vigor.

Romney flew into the battleground farming state of Iowa just ahead of Obama, but then moved on to New Hampshire, where he twisted the knife on his opponent.

"This president has not taken responsibility for what has been a failure of his economic policies," Romney told around 4,000 people who filled a small baseball stadium in Nashua, New Hampshire's second city.

The poor job numbers gave him the opportunity to wrest back the conversation after three days dominated by the Democrats' jamboree, which Romney said failed to deliver any new plans that could turn around the fortunes of US families.

"Instead it was a whole new series of promises. He didn't deliver on the last ones, why should we expect him to deliver on these? He is out of ideas, he's out of excuses," Romney said of Obama's pitch for a second term.

As Democrats left Charlotte, the North Carolina city that hosted their gala, a mood that was previously buoyant thanks to stirring speeches by First Lady Michelle Obama and former president Bill Clinton suffered a reality check.

Friday's report from the Labor Department, which revealed that just 96,000 jobs were created last month, was the cause of their woe.

And although the unemployment rate dropped to 8.1 percent in August, from 8.3 percent previously, the reduction was caused by a shrinking Labor force caused by despairing Americans who chose to abandon their search for work.

"If President Obama were re-elected, we would have four more years of the last four years, and the American people are going to say no to that," Romney told a 2,600-strong crowd crammed into a gymnasium in Orange City, Iowa.

The dismal job numbers cast a shadow over the president's post convention tour of New Hampshire, Iowa and Florida.

Obama and Romney later crossed paths. The president and vice president Joe Biden flew in separate planes from New Hampshire to Iowa, which they won in 2008 but where they now face a tight fight against Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan.