FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
President Barack Obama has a lot riding on Thursday's jobs speech - maybe even a second term.
As the president prepares to address a joint session of Congress and with the nation reeling from 9% unemployment, he's in a tough spot. And the Republicans know it.
Obama's approval rating continues to slide. A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows him at the lowest mark of his presidency with only 44% approving.
Another new poll by Politico shows 72% of those surveyed say the country is headed in the wrong direction. That's up 12 points since May. Only 39% approve of the president's handling of the economy.
If this economy doesn't start to turn around, the president is finished. In fact, one Democratic pollster already says that Obama is no longer the favorite to win re-election.
That’s why Thursday's speech is so important. But here's the thing: The president has made speech after speech on the economy for three years now. Where are the jobs?
The details of this speech are being kept under wraps, but the president might call for infrastructure spending, job training programs, tax breaks for businesses and workers and extending unemployment benefits - again. So far, no word on where the money for all this will come from. We are $14 trillion in debt.
The president claims he will propose ways to get Americans working to which both parties can agree. Don't bet on that agreement thingy.
Washington is more divided than ever, and Republicans can smell blood in the water here. They know Obama is vulnerable, and it seems unlikely that they'll agree to anything that will improve his position.
Here’s my question to you: What's the point of President Obama's job speech?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Bill in Clinton, Maryland:
2012 is riding on this speech. It's got to be a grand slam. I'm trying to figure out why the president is so reluctant to go toe-to-toe with Republicans. Unfortunately, every time he tries to "float like a butterfly and sting like a bee" he gets swatted. Now is the time to do more than the right thing. If not, then he should withdraw from running for re-election and let someone else fight the fight.
Rod:
The only thing the president wants is to be re-elected. Obama knows he is in terrible shape. It is a desperate attempt to get back in the game. Even Sarah Palin would have done a better job than the community-organizer-in-chief.
Jim in Concord, North Carolina:
Purely political. He's got to seize this issue with both hands to convince the electorate (Democrats like me included) that he has a clue about how to solve the problem that's uppermost in the minds of at least 75% of his constituents. If this falls flat (as I frankly suspect) he's in heavy seas, indeed.
Rex in Portland, Oregon:
The point should be: I do not create jobs – business and industry do that. I did not eliminate jobs – business and industry did that. It is time to wake up and realize the limitations of the presidency. It is time to realize that the control of the economy is not dependent on federal spending but upon private sector spending.
Tom on Facebook:
Everybody was clamoring for Obama’s plan before he went on vacation, and now nobody wants to hear it. This is a pretty good indicator of what the response to his speech will be, no matter what details are in his plan.
Dave in New Hampshire:
There is no point. No matter what he says the Republicans will do whatever it takes to block any effort he makes in order to get him out of office. So after 2012 we'll have a Republican president, and it will be the Democrats’ turn to block progress. Meanwhile our country flounders. What a system we have. I wonder how China will run things.