If between now and Election Day unemployment numbers improve, particularly if they dip below the 8% barrier, you know President Obama, with an MSM assist, will be out there pounding his chest about the number of jobs "he created."

But when the unemployment numbers remain weak?  Well, that's not Obama's fault.  Just ask Mike Allen of Politico.  On today's Morning Joe, trying to explain Obama's early campaign stumbles, Allen declared that certain factors, including the bleak job numbers, were "beyond the control" of Obama.  View the video after the jump.

Watch Allen let Obama, in the fourth year of his presidency, off the hook for his miserable performance on the economy.

MIKE ALLEN: It was three weeks ago that the president formally unveiled his campaign with those rallies in Ohio and Virginia. And he's been on the defensive, been on the back foot, as the Brits would say, ever since.  Right before the break you were talking about the Biden comments.  Some of the events are beyond their control: job numbers which looked good during the winter are now looking bleak again, Europe is looking like it might blow up again.