Two days after a much criticized sluggish debate performance, a reanimated President Barack Obama pounced happily on September's unemployment rate drop to 7.8% at a podium in Fairfax, Virginia.

The president said GOP opponent Mitt Romney’s deregulatory policies would return America to the Bush era.

“I can’t allow that to happen and that’s why I’m running for a second term as president of the United States,” Obama said. “I have seen too much struggle to see this country get hit by another round of top down economics.”

As he did yesterday, he ridiculed Romney’s debate argument against federal funding for Public Television.

“Somebody is finally getting tough on Big Bird,” the president said to laughs. “He’s going to bring down the hammer on Sesame Street.”

As Obama spoke, GOP allies attempted to put a negative spin on today’s unemployment figures.

The Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) PAC today launched a robo-call campaign throughout NJ-03 targeting Shelley Adler in direct response to “an unacceptably high unemployment rate where just 114,000 jobs were added.”

The call focuses on what the PAC says is the negative effect of Democrats’ policies for the family economy.

"Democrats deserve to be held responsible for the policies that are burying the middle class and will lead to lost jobs and higher family costs," said CLF Communications Director Dan Conston. "In this last month, we'll make sure they are."

Adler is challenging incumbent U.S. Rep. Jon Runyan (R-3) in a race a Stockton poll yesterday shows Runyan winning by ten points. 

State Democratic Party Chairman John Wisniewski applauded the national jobs gain of more than 86,000 than originally estimated, contrasting the federal picture with 9.9% unemployment in Republican Gov. Chris Christie's New Jersey. 

“President Obama came into office during the worst economic crisis in our lifetime, with an economy that was rapidly shedding jobs. Under the leadership of President Obama, we have seen 31 straight months of private sector job growth and 5.2 million new private sector jobs," the chairman said. "Our unemployment rate is now the lowest it has been since the President took office. He is moving our economy forward and getting Americans back to work."