senator marco rubio. and elijah cummings, ranking democrat on the house oversight and reform committee. plus, dana bash and jeff zellny of the new york times. i m candy crowley, and this is staft of the union. the economic headlines were ominous. retail and car sales are strong. but initial jobless claims falling since last year have jumped about 6% in the last three weeks. march sales of existing homes fell 2.6% and factory output slipped in march. then there was this iffy forecast for europe from the managing director of the international monetary fund. we are seeing light recovery blowing in a spring mind, bwind we re seeing some dark clouds on the horizon. if, as the economy goes so goes the election, then it was a worrisome week for the president s re-election team. joining me now president obama s senior re-election strategist david axelrod. good to see you. good to be here again. let me show you and our viewers the nbc news/ wall street journal survey
states. it s a fascinating, troubling story. we re also going to look at the war on drugs in mexico. could it actually be working? first, here s my take. a new poll in the united states shows that americans are still deeply frustrated at the slow pace of the economic recovery. that s understandable. unemployment stays stubbornly high. i was just in europe, and they think america is booming. consider this. the u.s. economy is on track to grow between 2% and 3% this year. in europe, by contrast, half the euro zone economies are going to actually shrink this year and not one major european country will grow over 1%. last thursday christine lagard, the head of the international monetary fund and former french finance minister, said there were dark clouds hanging over the global recovery and that the euro zone was at the epicenter of potential risks. borrowing costs for countries like spain, italy, and greece are rising again. what is going on? didn t it look like the europeans ha