Today's New Unemployment Numbers & Mitt Romney's Trip to England

The new unemployment numbers are out and unemployment now stands at 9.2 percent.

No president has ever won re-election to the presidency since Franklin Delano Roosevelt with unemployment higher than 7.2 percent (Ronald Reagan was at 7.2 percent).

Today Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors Austan Goolsbie said on CNBC: "'hundreds of thousands of jobs if not millions' could be created if a payroll tax cut is extended, trade deals are passed, an infrastructure bank is created, a patent reform bill is approved and a deficit deal is reached. He also said that if those things happen, the unemployment rate would be 8.2 percent by the fourth quarter of 2012." This is a direct quote from Politico's Whiteboard.

The problem is that history tells us that this will likely not be good enough. But, on the contrary, for all of the pundits who say that Obama is beatable -- like Karl Rove in his June 22 piece in the Wall Street Journal -- the question is, beatable by whom?

Mitt Romney?

What has he recently been up to? He has been meeting with the British Prime Minister and other high level British officials.

And what type of candidate meets with a British Prime Minister and other high level British officials? The candidate who has already won the nomination.

The advantage to these meetings are that they make for great photo-ops and also that they demonstrate potential for leadership on an international level.

On the contrary, the staging can also come across as an early coronation in a race that has barely just begun. This is, of course, if anyone is actually paying attention.

To contact the author, visit www.DavidHelfenbein.com or reach him via Twitter at @DavidHelfenbein.