(CNN) The U.S. unemployment rate dropped Friday to its lowest rate since February 2008 -- and President Barack Obama wants you to know about it.

Making a last-minute appearance in the White House briefing room, Obama made another bid to tout the country's economic progress under his watch, hoping to pierce the withering fiscal assessments being issued by Republican presidential candidates.

"The United States of America right now has the strongest, most durable economy in the world," Obama said. "I know that's still inconvenient for Republican stump speeches as their doom and despair tour plays in New Hampshire. I guess you cannot please everybody."

As the race to replace him gets louder, Obama is making a new push to extol his work reviving the U.S. economy from its Recession-era depths. As he cites an improved jobs landscape and rising wages, he's also taken to haranguing Republicans who still describe dire fiscal conditions.

"Had we adopted some of the policies that were advocated by Republicans over the last four, five, six years, we know that we probably would have done worse," he said Friday.

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