Ramesh, you may be right about what actually moves voters, but you can count on reporters to hound on the lagging indicators. See Bush Uno in 1992, when reporters were huddled in New Hampshire in October highlighting the terrible job picture there, even as national GDP growth numbers were higher than expected.

Allen could have described it this way: “Bush is acknowledging that unemployment could be a vulnerable issue with liberal reporters on the prowl for sympathetic unemployed people to interview on how the President has somehow failed them.”