Obama to speak about state of US economy

(AP) Obama to speak about state of US economy
WASHINGTON
President Barack Obama will address the state of the economy, including the debt crisis in Europe that’s become a drag on the U.S., in remarks at the White House Friday.

The president will also call on Congress to pass proposals that he says would put construction workers, teachers and first responders back to work, the White House said. Obama’s statement set for 10:15 a.m. EDT in the White House briefing room comes amid a rough patch for the president and his re-election campaign.

The bleak jobs report out last week showed the economy added just 69,000 jobs in May and the unemployment rate ticked up to 8.2 percent. The dismal jobs numbers weakened Obama’s re-election prospects in a race expected to hinge largely on the economy.

The bad news continued to mount for Obama this week.

On Tuesday, Republican Gov. Scott Walker used a sizable money advantage to overcome a Democrat-led, union-backed recall effort in Wisconsin. There were, however, a few glimmers of hope for Obama in his party’s loss in Wisconsin. The president had a 51-44 percent edge over his Republican challenger Mitt Romney in a survey of voters leaving the polls. More Wisconsin voters said Obama would do a better job improving the economy and helping middle-class Americans than his GOP rival would.

Romney’s campaign and the Republican National Committee announced Thursday that together they raised more than $76 million in May, surpassing the $60 million haul by the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

The fundraising numbers signal a new stage in the campaign as a resurgent Romney capitalizes on his emergence as the GOP’s standard-bearer.