By: Jeffrey Klein
Political Buzz Examiner

David Axelrod, communications director for the Obama reelection campaign, met with an unexpected challenge while trying to hold a press conference today on the steps of the Massachusetts Statehouse–the purpose for which was to highlight some of the more controversial aspects of Mitt Romney’s record as Governor, according to Sam Stein’s Huffington Post article today.

Before Axelrod could even get his attack off the ground, shouts of “four more years” were countered with cheers of “five more months!” And, talk of the Barack Obama’s accomplishments were met with chants of Solyndra [Solar] and Cory Booker — the mayor of Newark who gave honest, but off-message criticism of the Obama campaign’s attacks on Bain Capital, during an interview on a Sunday news program a week earlier.

Axelrod attempted to reclaim the mantel on the event, by saying to the [Romney] supporters…

“You can’t handle the truth, my friends, that is the problem … If you could handle the truth, then quiet down.”

“But, for those who are concerned about the issue of jobs and debt … it would behoove them to look at Mitt Romney’s record here in Massachusetts.”

David Axelrod would soon learn that he had just stepped on the “Mother of All Political IEDs” at that moment–as a trifecta of disappointing Reuters articles delivered the current, not historic, “truth” about jobs and the debt, which will only further denigrate Barack Obama’s already record-breaking catastrophe in his first term as president.

First up is the Reuters article today, reporting on the Weekly Initial Jobless Claims Report, where 383,000 new people filing for state unemployment benefits–10,000 greater than the prior week’s figure, which itself was revised up to 373,000 from the previously reported 370,000.

Claims have now risen in seven of the last eight weeks, causing the four-week moving average for new claims, a measure of labor market trends, to increase by 3,750 to 374,500.

Next, the ADP National Employment Report showed that private employers only created 133,000 jobs in May, fewer than expected by the economists surveyed by Reuters, who had forecast a gain of 148,000 jobs, according to the second Reuters article today.

Adding to that was the downward revision of the April figure to 113,000 from the previously reported 119,000.

Then came the really bad news from the U.S. Commerce Department, which reported the downward revision of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figure for the first quarter of 2012, showing that the U.S. economy only inched up at a 1.9 percent annual rate, down from last month’s initial 2.2 percent estimate, which itself was a serious decline from the 3.0 revised rate for the fourth quarter of 2011, according to the third Reuters article of the day.

This report also showed that after-tax corporate profits dropped for the first time in three years.

And according to yet another Reuters article, from Tuesday, it appears that Americans can feel President Obama losing his grip, as The Conference Board reported U.S. consumer confidence plunged in May, to a four month low of 64.9, compared to the downwardly revised 68.7 from April, as Americans became more pessimistic about the job market and economic outlook.

Finally, with barely five months before November elections, a recent Rasmussen Reports shows that 59% of those polled believe that the “U.S. is currently in a recession.”

This perception, which is in clear alignment with the above mentioned facts, will likely result in the reality of the “change” most Americans have been “hoping” for…

Seeing President and Mrs. Romney waving goodbye to Barack and Michelle Obama–from the front porch of White House in January 2013.