Don't look so surprised!

Mitt does this all the time!

The Romney campaign is getting lots of applause from the right for this research hit it released today, in the wake of the bad jobs report, showing that the White House has said dozens of times during Obama’s first term that it’s important not to read too much into a single monthly jobs report. Obama repeated that claim this morning, and the fact that the President or the White House has said this multiple times is supposed to prove that they are trying to dodge responsibility for the economy. There’s a small problem with this attack, however: The document itself shows that Obama and the White House have made this same assertion even when the jobs numbers were relatively good.

No, this is not a comedy-horror movie. This is the Mitt Romney presidential campaign, 2012 edition. And yes, they just attacked the Obama administration for being too consistent. Greg Sargent writes So, according to the Romney campaign, Obama sucks because every single time a jobs report comes out—good or bad—his administration says that one shouldn't read too much into any one report. On its face, that's a lame attack if no other reason that the administration is right: nobody should read too much into any one report. First, they are preliminary and subject to revision. Second, they are snapshots in time—you have to look at the bigger picture.

The fact that Romney thinks looking at the bigger picture is revealing. Today, for the first time in ages, he strode to the microphone within minutes of the news that job growth wasn't strong. He even took questions from reporters, hoping to amplify today's news. He was literally trying to exploit grim news for his political gain.

Compare Romney's reaction today to his reaction six months ago after the strong December jobs report:



Republican front-runner Mitt Romney did not mention the new numbers directly during a campaign event in South Carolina

Later in the day, his campaign put out a paper statement focused on—you guessed it—the big picture instead of that month's numbers. In other words, he attacked Obama by doing exactly what he's now attacking Obama for doing. In Romney's "defense," however, he only looks at the big picture when it's advantageous to him politically. He's not like Obama who does it because he thinks it is the right thing to do.