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2:30 PM ET, October 5, 2012

Top Items:

Tim Catts / Bloomberg:

Former GE CEO Jack Welch Says White House Manipulates Jobs Data — History Says No — Former General Electric Co. (GE) Chief Executive Officer Jack Welch accused the Obama administration on Twitter of manipulating today's employment data for political advantage.

Discussion: Election 2012, Wall Street Journal, JOSHUAPUNDIT, Associated Press, Talking Points Memo, The New Republic, Wonkblog, New York Magazine, Mediaite, MarketBeat, Washington Monthly, The Moderate Voice, The Raw Story and The Hinterland Gazette

Aviva Shen / ThinkProgress:

Meet The Conservatives Who Think Today's Job Numbers Are A Conspiracy — The Bureau of Labor Statistics released an unexpectedly strong monthly jobs report on Friday, finding a dramatic drop in unemployment to 7.8 percent and revised the number of jobs added in July and August up from initial estimates.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Mario Piperni dot Com, americanthinker.com and Dependable Renegade

Congressman Allen West / Facebook:

In regards to today's Jobs report—I agree with former GE CEO Jack Welch, Chicago style politics is at work here... We all want the suffering of the American people from this rampant scourge of unemployment to end. However, today's jobs report is confusing to say the least.

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Guardian, Business Insider, BuzzFeed, Weasel Zippers, TechCrunch, theGrio, The Hinterland Gazette and Post on Politics

James Pethokoukis / AEIdeas:

The sickly, stagnant September jobs report — Is this the Obama October Surprise? — Only in an era of depressingly diminished expectations could the September jobs report be called a good one. It really isn't. Not at all. — 1. Yes, the U-3 unemployment rate fell to 7.8% …

Discussion: protein wisdom, Economy Watch, Business Insider, Donklephant, OpenMarket.org, neo-neocon, Colorlines, Calculated Risk, ABCNEWS, The Maddow Blog, The Immoral Minority, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Weasel Zippers, Instapundit, The Heritage Foundation and National Review

Talking Points Memo:

Romney: ‘This Is Not What A Real Recovery Looks Like’ — Following news that the U.S. economy added 114,000 jobs in September, with unemployment falling to 7.8%, Mitt Romney on Friday released the following statement on the September unemployment report:

Discussion: The Maddow Blog, Suburban Guerrilla and p m carpenter's commentary

Jeff Cox / CNBC:

Jobs Growth Rises 114,000 as Rate Slides to 7.8 Percent — Job growth remained tame in September, with the economy creating just 114,000 net new positions though the unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent, the first time it has been below 8 percent in 43 months.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, The Daily Caller, Taylor Marsh, The Gateway Pundit, Scared Monkeys and iOwnTheWorld.com

Benjy Sarlin / Talking Points Memo:

Solid Jobs Report Spawns Crackpot ‘Job Truthers’ Movement — This post has been updated. — The economy added 114,000 jobs in September and unemployment declined to 7.8 percent. Not great numbers, but paired with major upward revisions to previous monthly reports and taken in the context …

Discussion: Firedoglake, BuzzFeed, Paul Krugman and Mother Jones

Ezra Klein / Wonkblog:

September jobs report: Debunking the jobs report conspiracy theories — Look at that graph. There's nothing all that amazing, or all that weird, about this month's numbers. — We've hit that moment in the election when people begin to lose their minds.

Discussion: The Monkey Cage, National Review, The Caucus, The Huffington Post, Business Insider, No More Mister Nice Blog, Guardian, The Maddow Blog and Booman Tribune

Shaila Dewan / New York Times:

Jobless Rate Falls to 7.8%, Lowest Since January 2009 — The nation's unemployment rate dropped below 8 percent in September to its lowest rate since President Obama took office, the Labor Department said Friday. — While employers added only a modest 114,000 jobs last month …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Moderate Voice, Economix, Washington Examiner, Plunderbund, The Agonist, New York Magazine, Marbury, Mother Jones, Washington Monthly, The PJ Tatler and National Review

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Jobs report: 114K jobs added, jobless rate 7.8%; Update: CNBC confused by “contradictory” …

Discussion: FiveThirtyEight, Shot in the Dark, Economix, Pirate's Cove, HyperVocal, Outside the Beltway, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Weekly Standard, FT Alphaville and Blue Mass Group

Associated Press:
US jobless rate falls to 7.8 pct., 44-month low

Discussion: The PJ Tatler, p m carpenter's commentary and The Hinterland Gazette

Brett LoGiurato / Business Insider:
JACK WELCH: Obama Is Manipulating The Jobs Numbers Because His Debate Performance Was Awful

Discussion: GOP 12 and The PJ Tatler

Kevin A. Hassett / National Review:
Think Again about That ‘Good’ Jobs Report

Discussion: Power Line and Hot Air

Sheldon Alberts / The Hill:
Labor secretary ‘insulted’ by claims job numbers were rigged

Discussion: CNN

Business Insider:
BOOM: UNEMPLOYMENT RATE FALLS TO 7.8%, BIG UPWARD REVISION TO LAST MONTH

Discussion: Firedoglake, Mediaite, The Big Picture and Washington Examiner

Geoffrey Rogow / Real Time Economics:
Impossible to Manipulate Labor Survey Data — Former BLS Head

Discussion: Wonkblog, MarketBeat and Outside the Beltway

Alex Kowalski / Bloomberg:
U.S. Jobless Rate Declines to 7.8%; 114,000 Jobs Added

Discussion: Hit & Run, NO QUARTER USA NET and Balloon Juice

Luke Johnson / The Huffington Post:
Conservatives Doubt Jobs Numbers Following Strong Report

Discussion: Felix Salmon, The Maddow Blog, Wonkette and Mother Jones

Rrast / Americans for Limited Government:
Unemployment rate contradicted by job growth report

Discussion: Politico, protein wisdom, Examiner, Outside the Beltway and Daily Kos

CNN:
Unemployment rate below 8% a boon for Obama, but Romney says not enough

Discussion: ABCNEWS and Politico

Terence P. Jeffrey / CNSNews:
Unemployment Rate Plummets to 4.3%—For Government Workers

Discussion: protein wisdom, Patterico's Pontifications and Riehl World News

Zeke Miller / BuzzFeed:

Romney “Cheat Sheet” Was A Handkerchief, Campaign Says — Conspiracy theory of the day. — Source: youtube.com — ABINGTON, Va. — Mitt Romney's campaign is shooting down a simmering online theory the Republican nominee used a “cheat sheet” in Wednesday night's debate against President Barack Obama.

Discussion: Shakesville, Wonkette and Towleroad News #gay

Daily Kos:
Did Mitt use crib notes for the debate?

Discussion: National Review and New York Times, more at Mediagazer »

Elias Isquith / The Atlantic Online:

Paul Ryan's Debt to Barry Goldwater—Who'd Be Mortified by Paul Ryan — The conservative scion vice-presidential nominee seeks to finish the work that the GOP started in 1964, with one crucial revision. — U.S Congress (Ryan); Library of Congress (Goldwater)

Discussion: Bloomberg, National Review and Balloon Juice

Linda Morrison / Quad City Times:
I was not calling Ryan out — I am the woman in the Green Bay …

Discussion: ABCNEWS

Washington Post:

Romney: ‘47 percent’ remarks were ‘completely wrong’ — View Photo Gallery — Surrounded by four of his five sons, Republican nominee for president Mitt Romney makes a surprise appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Denver. View more photos from the campaign trail.

Discussion: Daily Kos, Balloon Juice, Fox News Insider and Election 2012

Hadas Gold / Politico:
Romney: ‘47 percent’ remarks ‘wrong’

Discussion: americanthinker.com, No More Mister Nice Blog, Outside the Beltway, Gawker, Taylor Marsh, Ballot Box and nation.foxnews.com

Jake Tapper / ABCNEWS:

Email Shows State Department Rejecting Request of Security Team at US Embassy in Libya — (Image Credit: Ibrahim Alaguri/AP Photo) — ABC News has obtained an internal State Department email from May 3, 2012, indicating that the State Department denied a request from the security team …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, The Daily Caller, Taylor Marsh, JustOneMinute, emptywheel, The Heritage Foundation, The PJ Tatler, Weasel Zippers, americanthinker.com, National Review, Conservative Hideout 2.0 and The Daily Beast

John McCormack / Weekly Standard:

Ryan: Biden Coming at Me ‘Like a Cannonball’ — Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan talk to each other on the phone almost every day, and the day of the first presidential debate was no exception. “I told him after the debate that he crushed it,” Ryan told THE WEEKLY STANDARD in a phone interview Thursday night.

Discussion: The Hill, ABCNEWS and Election 2012

Kyle Balluck / The Hill:
Dems hope Biden can blunt Romney momentum post-debate

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Jammie Wearing Fools

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:

No, Romney Did Not “Move to the Center” in Debate — Before it becomes a kind of Fact-Made-Fact-By-Repetition, I'd like to challenge the much-assumed idea that in the first presidential debate Mitt Romney “moved to the center” in a real, substantive way. This seems to be the conclusion …

Discussion: First Read, Mother Jones and Slate

David Brooks / New York Times:
Moderate Mitt Returns!

Discussion: p m carpenter's commentary

Mike Ramsey / CBS Chicago:

NAACP Official: Obama Campaign Staffer Threatened Me — CHICAGO (CBS) — The President of the South Suburban Branch of the NAACP alleges a director of the re-election campaign of Barack Obama has threatened and intimidated him because he doesn't support the president.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, The PJ Tatler, Weasel Zippers, The Hinterland Gazette and Jammie Wearing Fools

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Exclusive: Jim Lehrer says he was ‘effective’ as presidential debate moderator — I didn't follow it carefully,' he said | Jim Lehrer has been widely criticized for his passive performance as the moderator of Wednesday's night's presidential debate, but in his first post-debate interview …

Discussion: Mediaite and Washington Examiner

BuzzFeed:

Obama Deploys Big Bird To Romney Rally — And the Democratic National Committee releases a new web video mocking Romney for wanting to cut the subsidy for PBS. Furry politics. — Source: youtube.com — Statement from Obama spokeswoman Lis Smith: