times square or an oil spill off of the gulf coast happens, and suddenly he s being drawn into other issues. this white house desperately wants to just talk about jobs between now and november, tout the successes of the stimulus, stick it to republicans for opposing it, and make that the narrative. the problem is can they do it in this crazy media environment where it seems like one disaster s happening after the next? well, even if they did have the clear field, though, what is the republican argument against the president? people pretend that the president gets up there and talks without objection. when he finishes his talking points on jobs, what s the republican counter? the thing is the republican argument is getting softer and softer because when you saw in april was there s 444,000 new jobs. it s tough to say where are the jobs when the data s there. we re going to break it there. coming up, the liberals want to know, is elena kagan liberal enough? the answer is it comes d
off with the child. the mother didn t tell the police her boyfriend had been drinking. it s all coming into the newsroom, breaking news from across the country and around the world. we ll have it for you on happening now . jane: also we ve got breaking business news, brand new jobs out this morning, the labor department reporting first-time unemployment claims dropped by 4000 last week, down to a seasonally adjusted 444,000 people filing for these unemployment benefits. fourth straight week that claims dropped. a sign the job market is slowly improving. economists clearly believe weekly claims must be below 425,000, though, to indicate the economy is actually creating jobs. president obama is taking his white house to main street tour to buffalo, new york this morning, departing from the white house just a couple of moments ago. the president is set to tour a manufacturing plant, hold a town hall meeting, talking about jobs and the economy. and some people in buffalo are using this
steve: almost 6 feet. gretchen: good advice. thanks very much. fox news alert. labor department just reporting that the weekly jobless claim numbers are out. 444,000 new claims reported. there are now 4.6 million continuing claims. brian: president obama heads to buffalo later this morning, continuing his white house to main street tour. residents sending a message to the president ahead of his trip, putting up this billboard. the unemployment rate there is 8.6%. that billboard says. steve: mr. president, i need a freaking job, period. sincerely, and then there is a web site. for those in radio, you ve been clued in. he heads to wall street and will deliver remarks at a democratic congressional campaign committee. price per couple? $30,000. that s 15,000 each. steve: that s right. meanwhile, in two hours, a group of muslim americans will speak out and announce denounce
the $146 billion bailout from the e.u. and the i.m.f. new jobless claims dropped to 444,000. we have retailser like costco, limited, macy s, reporting upbeat sales for april. freddie mac lost $8 billion last quarter and says it needs another $10 billion from the government. freddy has received $50 billion from the treasury and says, housing in america still remains fran tran fragile. kyra, before i go, one little story that we kept out specifically for you. it s national hamburger month. if you are going to celebrate
55,000 people have taken part from that in that survey. martha: wow. bill: 79 percent say try him as an enemy combatant. martha: we had the move by senator lieberman, basically you saying you give up your citizenship when you attack your country. it s an interesting argument. we rewe re going to hear more about that. bill: 55,000 in ten hours. that s remarkable. martha: news is breaking on america s economy, folks. we just got the new weekly jobless claims numbers, 444,000 americans sought first-time unemployment benefits, that is about 7000 less than the week before, and it is the third straight week of a drop, and that s what you want to see in economics, you want to see a trend, you want to see that line moving downward, but that number is still a little bit more than economists were expecting for the week. more evidence that we could be looking at a jobless recovery at this point. right now, 15 million americans remain unemployed, and this number includes those discouraged worker