In the wake of Friday's dismal jobs numbers, the Obama camp released a video on Monday of Jim Messina reassuring supporters that the campaign is still on track.
"We knew this was gonna be a tough race, and we knew that once Mitt Romney locked up the nomination, Republicans would get behind him and this race would be tight, just like we always knew it would be," the campaign manager says in the three-minute video billed as an "update" from Messina on polling, grassroots organizing, and electoral votes.
He touches on each of those three things, pointing out that at this time in 2008, Obama was lower in the polls than he is today and pundits were predicting doom for his campaign. Messina also highlights the campaign's electoral-vote math, telling supporters that the president is far ahead of Romney in terms of electoral votes and that the 191 still up for grabs are "in the battleground states where we're doing some of our best organizing."
"We've already out-organized what we did in 2008, which, to quote the vice president, is a big ... um ... deal," Messina says over a montage of supporters canvassing and registering voters.
The video comes after Republicans spent the weekend blasting Obama over Friday's jobs numbers, which revealed that the economy created only 69,000 new jobs in May and that the unemployment rate rose from 8.1 percent to 8.2 percent. The GOP said the report proves its contention that the president hasn't shown leadership and that his policies have failed.
In his closing reassurance, Messina tells supporters to ignore everything but the end goal. "All this is just to say one thing: The only poll that really matters is November 6, Election Day," he said. "We can't pay attention to anything else, good or bad."
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