The Fat Lady Clears Her Throat

MarketWatch reports:

The U.S. economy lost 95,000 nonfarm jobs in September as local and state governments shed positions at a faster rate than the private sector was adding.

Nonfarm payrolls fell by 95,000 in September, much larger than the 8,000 decline expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch and the 57,000 jobs lost in August.

The unemployment rate remained steady at 9.6% as fewer new workers joined the labor market than in the previous month. Economists had expected a slight increase.

Private-sector payrolls rose by 64,000 in September. Private payrolls rose a revised 93,000 in August from the initial estimate of a 67,000 increase.

The private payrolls growth came in weaker than the 85,000 increase expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch.

CBS News reports:

Republicans have widened their lead against Democrats among likely voters in the generic ballot for the House of Representatives by six points since last month, a new CBS News Poll reports.

Republicans now hold an eight point lead over Democrats in the generic ballot, with 45 percent of likely voters saying they would support the Republican candidate for the House, and 37 percent saying they would support the Democrat. Last month Republicans led Democrats by a margin of only 2 points, with 40 percent saying they would vote for a Republican and 38 percent saying they would vote for a Democrat.

The Hill reports:

Democrats have a serious intensity problem heading into the final month of campaigning, according to a new poll of a dozen key House races.

The Hill/ANGA 2010 Midterm Election Poll confirms a strong trend this election season of Democrats being less enthusiastic about voting than are Republicans and dissatisfied independents.

Across those districts won by Democrats during President Obama’s wave election two years ago, 83 percent of Republicans said they are “very passionate” about voting this fall, while 68 percent of Democrats and 67 percent of independents say the same.

McClatchy reports:

Republicans enjoy a substantial "enthusiasm gap" in which their supporters are more likely to vote in this fall's elections for control of Congress than Democratic voters, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll.

The poll found that 51 percent of Republicans are very enthusiastic about voting, a large edge over the 32 percent of independents who are very enthusiastic and almost twice the 28 percent of Democrats.

That large gap — a strong indicator that Republicans are more likely to vote — dominates the landscape despite claims by top Democrats that they're slowly but surely getting their voters more excited and closing the gap.

"We're beginning to see some signs of progress out there," David Plouffe told reporters Thursday; he was President Obama's 2008 campaign manager and is now a top adviser to Democrats. He provided no polls to back up the claim.

"We're not seeing that," said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion at Marist College, which conducted the national poll.

For gloomier Democrats, this movie sequence may seem appropriate: