Numbers

The Labor Department released its final pre-election jobs report a little over an hour ago.  This was never going to have more than a marginal effect on the election this late in the game, as economic measures have long since been baked into the polling numbers and approval ratings (not to mention the voting decisions either made or already cast), but they’re good for the President.  171,000 jobs created, unemployment only slips a statistically insignificant 0.1% from 7.8% to 7.9%, and the jobs growth for August and September were significantly revised upward.

So, while the MSM have been breathlessly awaiting these numbers, they’re not going to impact the election.  The report will have two results, however:

First, the wingnut response, or in the words of one retweet I read, “The jobs numbers come out today, and either they prove Obama is a complete failure or that he cooked the books. Those are the only choices.”

Second, this excellent explanatory post with really cool graphs at Calculated Risk.

h/t Nicholas Dronen