Mitt Romney Close to Worst in Country at Job Creation, Ranked 47th Out of 50 States

Original Link: http://www.alternet.org/rss/1/635096/mitt_romney_close_to_worst_in_country_at_job_creation,_ranked_47th_out_of_50_states/

By Steve Benen

As Mitt Romney’s atrocious record on job creation continues to from other Republicans, Democrats are starting to focus more of their energies on the Republican frontrunner’s more glaring vulnerability.

Today, for example, the former governor will campaign at a NASCAR race in Loudon, New Hampshire. The Democratic National Committee released a new video to honor the occasion.



In case there are any doubts, this has the benefit of being true. During Romney’s only service in public office, his state’s record on job creation was “one of the worst in the country.” Massachusetts really did rank 47th out of 50 states in jobs growth on Romney’s watch (and unlike President Obama, Romney didn’t inherit an economic crisis). There was a reason Romney served one term and then quit — he was not all popular with his constituents and probably would have lost a re-election bid.
And that’s just his public-sector record. In the private sector, Romney made a living slashing American jobs — a record that’s also starting to gain wider attention.

On the campaign trail, Romney keeps making this worse. He not only seems to find unemployment funny, he’s also arguing that jobless Americans have to bear a greater burden because corporations need another tax cut.

Despite all of this, Romney has decided to not only build his entire campaign around the jobs issue, but also position himself as a champion of the unemployed. This morning’s DNC video is a hint of what’s to come — labeling Romney as “the anti-jobs candidate” will be a pretty straightforward exercise.

As a purely political matter, unemployment is obviously a key obstacle for the president’s re-election. Is Obama lucky enough to have Republicans nominate the candidate whose weakest issue is jobs?