The Hill News

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) called June's anemic job creation numbers "stunningly bad news" on Friday, opening a line of assault by GOP presidential candidates against President Obama.

Bachmann pounced on news that the U.S. economy only created 18,000 jobs last month, a figure well below expectations, and one that's sure to drive economic anxiety and political advantages for Republicans. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.1 percent.

"It's stunningly bad news. It's bad news for the president politically but it's even worse news for Americans on Main Street," Bachmann said Friday on CNBC.

The field of 2012 candidates have made jobs and the economy t! heir top area of attack against the president, and Bachmann, like the campaign's frontrunner, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R), acknowledged that jobs would be the top issue. 

Romney called Friday for the firing of David Plouffe, the president's senior adviser, who on Thursday appeared to say that the unemployment rate wasn't critical to the 2012 campaign.

“If David Plouffe were working for me, I would fire him and then he could experience firsthand the pain of unemployment," Romney said. "With their cavalier attitude about the economy, the White House has turned the audacity of hope into the audacity of indifference.”

"They're very upset about these numbers, and they're very upset about the lack of job growth," she said. "I ha! ve talked to businessowners all across the nation, and they're! paralyz ed with fear right now."

June's numbers were worse than expected and contains few signs of optimism; economists had predicted that as many as 120,000 jobs would be created. 

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (R) chimed in Friday morning, too, calling the numbers "not acceptable."

"[T]he American people have been extraordinarily patient in waiting for the better and brighter times promised to them by this Administration," he said. "Their patience has rightly worn thin."

President Obama is set to address the report, in remarks that share both presidential and political significance, at 10:30 this morning.