Hotsheet Live: What do the unemployment numbers mean for Obama?

(CBS News) -- CBS News political director John Dickerson was joined on Hotsheet Live Friday by National Journal's Reid Wilson, PBS's Christina Bellantoni, and The New York Time's Michael Shear to discuss the April jobs report.

The Labor Department said the economy added just 115,000 new jobs last month, though the unemployment rate fell slightly to 8.1 percent as some workers gave up on their job search and are not counted in the unemployment statistics.

"We are at the point, traditionally speaking, at which people's opinions about the economy generally harden," said Wilson. "Here we are six months out, the way people feel about the economy now is probably going to look very similar to the way that people will feel about the economy on Election Day."

And the president will have an especially tough selling in states like Virginia and Ohio, Dickerson said.

"President Obama has another few months to get people to start feeling better about the economy," Bellantoni added.

Each guest concluded the show by sharing their endorsements for the week.

Michael Shear endorsed David Maraniss's new book "Barack Obama: The Story," as well as the new movie Avengers.

Christina Bellantoni shared a slogan she learned during a recent vacation. "The Costa Rican slogan on a keychain I have right here is 'pura vida,' which literally means 'good life,'" she said. "I thought I want to take that back with me to Washington because I think we all lose that sometimes."

Reid Wilson endorsed Joshua Green's column today in the Boston Globe, "Zombie Congress."

And lastly, host John Dickerson endorsed Bill Clinton's review of "The Passage of Power" by Robert Caro

Watch the entire discussion, including the panelists' thoughts on the Obama campaign's "The Life of Julia," in the video above.

[bbglow]

Republicans need to explain their use of the terms socialist and socialism. If the terms are directed at individuals looking for a handout, I would agree with them. However, if the terms are directed at individuals seeking good paying employment and productive work and is directed at individuals who challenge efforts to lower wages, discourage individual growth and protect bargaining rights then my response is to let the republicans eat cake.

[wayneonly]

The recession which started in 2008 was caused by the "Too Big To Fail" banks and the subsequent bailouts of those same banks. The banks have recovered (thanks to taxpayer money) but the economy hasn't. The Republicans claim that if we (the taxpayer) give the tax breaks to the wealthiest 1% of Americans they will invest it in new business and everybody will have jobs. We have all seen how that has worked. But the Republicans want to blame all the problems on the Democrats and especially the President because they have no other plan to reduce unemployment. But the real problem is not the President. The real problem is Congress. Yes, the REAL PROBLEM IS THE CONGRESS (both Democrats and Republicans). Do I need to say it again? THE REAL PROBLEM IS THE CONGRESS. So it is time we the voter) do something about it.

We (the voter) need to become more informed. We need to check the record of every Congressperson we send to Congress. Three good books for every voter to read are: Winner Take All Politics: How Washington Made The Rich Richer Turned It's Back On The Middle Class by Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson, Throw Them All Out by Peter Schweizer, and Greedy Bastards by Dylan Ratigan. These books will open your eyes to the real corruption in Congress and why the influence of big banks and big business has cost the taxpayer so much and the deficits are so high. Congress has legislated the biggest WELFARE program for big money at the expense of the taxpayer. And they will continue to do so as long as the voter stays uneducated.

Congress (with the help of the voter) has set themselves up as the PERMANENT POLITICAL PARTY. They believe they are the "elite" class, "entitled" to "special" privileges and are "above the law(s) that govern the rest of us. And we have fostered this belief by electing them term after term without checking their voting records or watching their financial dealings. Often they are voting for legislation or appropriations that directly affect their personal income or the income of their campaign contributors. They buy or sell stocks according to information they gain in Congress which would be considered as "insider trading" if the average American did the same. But this is "ethical" according to their own controlled ethics committee.

We (the voter) need to resolve that we will vote out EVERY incumbent Congressperson when they come up for reelection. We (the voter) have no lobbies, no slush fund monies, and no super PACs to buy Congressional votes. But we do have the vote (at least for now). But our vote has no influence as long as we follow the party line (any party). Our vote only has influence if we show each Congressperson that we will not rubber stamp their continued bad conduct in Congress. With that in mind, we need to resolve that we will elect a new congressperson in every election until we have a Congress that is responsive to the average American instead of influenced by big money. Who knows, we might even get big money out of the election process and back in the building of American.

[gsa400]

It's imperative that the numbers are better, if we had people that understood just what was going on it wouldn't be so critical. If you take a close look we will see mostly the republican held states are having problems recovering. You can't educate the American voter for they will stay forever dumb so you must accept the fact that are rights as Americans are in jeopardy.The smoke screen has hidden that fact quite well, so what will it be your freedom or the GOP America.

[stormerF69]

You mean the ones comming the real Adjusted ones,or the bogus ones they always put forth first?They always ,always adjust them and they always adjust them to reflect a less positive results. They mean nothing,with 88 million people out of work they can play with numbers all day long and Obama just gets more confused.