When is getting better good enough?

Staff/wire reports

WASHINGTON

The stronger the economy gets, the more the presidential race comes down to what voters believe: Are things actually getting better? Or is it all still a mess?

If the economy’s direction is the key, President Barack Obama’s hand just keeps getting stronger.

A new snapshot Friday showed the unemployment rate has tumbled to 8.3 percent. That means it is almost back to where it was right after Obama took office, a time when a monstrous recession still was gobbling up American jobs. Hiring now is on a consistent upswing. Employers added nearly twice as many jobs last year as they did in 2010.

With every fresh batch of economic data, the Republicans challenging Obama and the president himself try to spin the numbers to their advantage, depicting either a nation mired in trouble or one showing undeniable signs of progress. Both often seem to be true.

So whichever side sways people on where to put their focus — on America’s lingering economic hole or on the fact that the country is climbing out of it — will have an enormous edge toward winning the White House.

Shortly after the jobs report was released, Obama sounded more confident than ever, declaring: “The recovery is speeding up.”

State Sen. Joe Schiavoni of Canfield, D-33rd, agreed.

“The facts show that we as a county have grown jobs [in the private sector] for the last 23 months,” he said Friday. “These are facts that can’t be disputed.”

The Republicans say that’s none of Obama’s doing, that improvements are in spite of his policies, not because of them. There’s still a long way to go before full recovery; federal deficits and Europe’s troubles hang ominously over the U.S.; unemployment could worsen again.

But there’s little doubt that the brightening picture, which also is reflected in other economic indicators, has seriously complicated the messaging for the GOP.

It wasn’t long ago that the unemployment rate was closer to 10 percent and stagnant, making it easier for them to claim nothing was getting better under Obama. Now they have to calibrate.

“I believe the economy will come back. It always does,” said Mitt Romney, the Republican front- runner, during a campaign stop in Nevada. He blamed Obama’s policies for slowing the recovery, hurting families, and making it harder for businesses to bounce back. “And for that,” Romney said, “the president deserves the blame that he’ll receive in this campaign.”

The bigger opening for Republicans has to do with the burden still resting on Obama’s shoulders: Millions of people don’t feel any better yet, no matter what the statistics show.

State Rep. Robert F. Hagan of Youngstown, D-60th, said Obama has done as much as he can in a divided legislature.

“It hasn’t been easy because the Republicans have fought him every step of the way,” he said.