They knew it was coming, but a fix isn't so predictable

WASHINGTON - For months, President Obama warned it was coming, but that didn't ease the political shock waves for him when the Labor Department reported yesterday that unemployment now tops 10 percent.

A year after his election, Obama finds it increasingly difficult to blame the sour economy on George W. Bush or offer reassurances that jobless Americans will soon find work.

Never mind that the economy itself grew in the last quarter, that the recession by most accounts is over, and that the number of jobs lost in October was less than one-third the number of monthly job losses at the start of his presidency.

At 10.2 percent, the October unemployment rate was at heights unseen in more than a quarter century. The bottom line is that 15.7 million Americans are out of work - and 3.5 million have lost their jobs since he became president in January.

Obama, appearing at the White House Rose Garden yesterday three hours after the jobless numbers were made public, said his administration was looking at additional spending for roads and bridges and energy-efficient buildings. Additional tax cuts for businesses and steps to increase credit for small businesses also are under consideration.

In addition, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D., N.Y.), who heads Congress' Joint Economic Committee, said Democrats would consider new aid to states and an "infrastructure bank" to increase construction jobs.

"I think we're witnessing a political renaissance about concerns about jobs," Lawrence Mishel, president of the labor-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said approvingly. "It will put the deficit concerns into their appropriate context."

What all this amounts to is another stimulus for the economy. But don't look for Democrats to call it that; they have a tough enough time debating the merits of the $787 billion stimulus Congress passed earlier this year.

Republicans pounced on the proposals. Internal polling by the Republican National Committee after GOP gubernatorial wins in New Jersey and Virginia this week showed Republican candidates could do well by arguing against more spending while promoting job growth through tax-cutting alone.

But in rhetoric and in deed, Obama is being forced to address an unemployment picture his economic team had long ago expected to avoid.

Many economists predict the jobless rate will continue rising to peak at 10.5 percent sometime next year before employment makes a turnaround in the spring. That still means unemployment will remain high for some time.

With 10 months on the job, Obama yesterday did not even try to lay the blame for the economy at Bush's feet, as he has in the past. His only criticism was implied.

"When we first came into office, our immediate goal was to stop the free fall that caused our economy to shrink at an alarming rate," he said. "We've succeeded in achieving that goal, as our economy grew last quarter for the first time in a year."

But Obama has already taken ownership of the economy.