Last month, when the unemployment rate dropped by three-tenths of a percentage point to dip below 8 percent for the first time in 43 months, Mitt Romney dismissed the drop as meaningless. Some Republicans said federal officials manipulated the numbers to help President Obama win re-election. This month, when the jobless rate went up by a smaller amount, Mr. Romney took it as gospel, proof that Mr. Obama’s policies are a failure. Last month, Mr. Romney focused on a reduction in the work force. This month, he would not admit that the work force had expanded.

The truth is that Mr. Obama was right when he talked about “real progress” in the economy during a campaign swing in Ohio, where the state unemployment rate has declined from 8.6 percent a year ago to 7 percent recently. Republican obstructionism has made it much harder to achieve the improvement we have seen, but it has failed in its seeming intent to ensure stagnation.

That left Mr. Romney flailing around for a response. His proclamation that the economy was at a “virtual standstill” is believable only if you adopt Mr. Romney’s denial of stark reality. A candidate who could ignore Chrysler’s announcement of 1,100 new jobs in Toledo and claim that Chrysler was moving jobs to China can just as easily see a flat line in an upward trend.

In fact, the jobs recovery has not been derailed; it is showing some signs of acceleration. With 171,000 jobs added last month and job tallies for the two prior months revised upward, employment growth since July has averaged 173,000 jobs a month, up sharply from the average monthly pace of 67,000 in the second quarter of 2012.