US election: Job figures are bad news for America He is fortunate then, that his 'rockstar' opponent seems, of late, to be losing his voice. The November campaign is now shaping up to be a weary contest of negatives; where Mr Obama, rhetorically an increasingly spent force, collides with Mr Romney, the political equivalent of a vacuum. In sign of the lack of concrete ideas, a top Romney economics adviser, Glenn Hubbard, recently argued that merely "clarifying policy" on tax and regulation, will have a stimulus effect. That may possibly be true, but it is hardly a platform for popular election. At the same time as finding his own voice, Mr Romney must also hope popular economic sentiment turns against Mr Obama. Strip out political hyperbole, and the new jobs numbers were not "devastating" - jobs are still growing, as are car sales - but they were undeniably a "worrying" sign that the US economy is now hitting stall speeds. It is true that no incumbent president of modern times has been elected with unemployment at current levels, but it also true that what matters more is the direction of travel. Reagan was re-elected with high 7.2 per cent unemployment in 1984, but crucially the numbers had been falling in the run-up to that election. Until this month Mr Obama has plausibly been able to argue that life, while still tough, has been improving for the average American worker - but with alarm bells now sounding, that is going to be an increasingly difficult case to make.