CNBC Host: "Almost Impossible" for Obama to Win in 2012?

The U.S. unemployment rate in September was 9.1%, a terrible statistic and a symptom of a profoundly damaged economy. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the official jobless rate has been above 9% for 27 of the last 29 months, the most prolonged period of high unemployment since the Great Depression.

On CNBC's Squawk Box October 7, co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin suggested the numbers have gotten so bad, they may be politically fatal for President Obama: "The most interesting statistic I saw last night was -- remember when people used to say for Obama to win, this was a year or two ago, it [the unemployment rate] had to be under 8%. For him to get unemployment, from now until the elections, under 8%, you have to create something on the order of 400,000 jobs a month.... which is, obviously, almost impossible."

As Sorkin accurately remembered, nearly a year ago (November 2010) the Weekly Standard's Jonathan Last summarized the stakes for Obama: "No president since FDR has run for reelection with the unemployment rate above 8 percent. And the outlook for 2012 is grim. The White House Office of Management and Budget projects 8.1 percent unemployment in 2012. So does the Congressional Budget Office. And those are the rosy scenarios."