Those 12 Million Jobs

One of Obama's problems in the first debate was that Romney said two things that sounded really impressive that Obama had no answer for: his five-point plan, and his claim that he'll create 12 million jobs in four years.

The former isn't much of a plan when you go to his web site and look at it. But Obama still has to have an answer to it by discussing his own plan. That shouldn't be hard. Politicians always have plans. They have plans about plans. Any state legislator worth her salt ought to be able to wing her way through that one.

The more serious thing is the 12 million jobs claim. Until today. Glenn Kessler demolished it, giving it the full four Pinocchios. It turns out first of all that Moody's Analytics predicts 12 million new jobs (250,000 a month on average, which is not a massive number in a non-post-Bush economy) will happen no matter who is president. And second, it seems that Romney's back-up material refers to the jobs being created over 10 years. Or maybe eight. Or maybe something else entirely.

Greg Sargent and Steve Benen are all over this today. So this is now something specific to watch for tonight: When Romney mentions the 12 million jobs in four years, will we see that Obama has done some homework, and that he knows of the studies Kessler cites?