MSNBC's Martin Wolk does some cheerleading for Bush:

 Monthly employment figures due Friday are likely to bolster President Bush's standing on key "pocketbook" issues that are crucial to his bid for re-election over Sen. John Kerry.

Forecasters expect the Labor Department to report the economy added about 158,000 jobs last month, which would be the best result in four months.

But the CNN/Money story I quoted a couple of days ago has a different perspective: Given that

U.S. businesses announced 107,863 job cuts in September, up from 74,150 job cuts in August, a gain of 45.5 percent

and

companies announced plans to add just 16,166 new jobs, down from 132,105 in August

Robert Brusca of Fact and Opinion Economics

has forecast just 100,000 new jobs.

We'll see who's right.

*****

UPDATE: 96,000 -- the cheerleaders were wrong.