By Kate Andersen Brower and Roger Runningen

June 18 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama pivoted from
the Gulf of Mexico oil spill back to the economy today with an
emphasis on the jobs created by his administration’s $862
billion economic stimulus package.

At a groundbreaking in Columbus, Ohio, for the 10,000th
road project funded by the stimulus, Obama said improving the
nation’s infrastructure is one of the keys to long-term
prosperity.

“If we’re going to rebuild America’s economy, then we’ve
got to rebuild America, period, from the ports and the airways
that ship our goods, to the roads and transit systems that move
our workers and connect cities and businesses,” Obama said at
the project site near the Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

The president is seeking to remind voters of his efforts to
revive the economy five months ahead November’s midterm
elections. Republicans have criticized the stimulus legislation
as a wasteful spending program that hasn’t fulfilled the
administration’s promises on job creation.

Unemployment in Ohio is 10.7 percent, one percentage point
higher than the national average. While the Federal Reserve’s
regional business survey showed last week that the economy
expanded in all the central bank’s districts in April and May
for the first time in more than two years, job growth has
lagged. Initial jobless claims increased by 12,000 to 472,000 in
the week ended June 12, Labor Department figures showed
yesterday.

‘Summer of Recovery’

“The economy is still lousy,” Transportation Secretary
Ray LaHood told reporters before today’s trip. “We want to put
the message out: This is going to be the summer of recovery.”

LaHood, who traveled with the president to Ohio, said the
project being highlighted today is expected to create more than
300 new jobs and is one of 462 transportation projects in Ohio
funded by $1.1 billion in stimulus money.

The work being done under the stimulus will “pay dividends
to our communities for generations to come,” Obama said.
“While the recovery may start with projects like this it can’t
end here.”

In a report to the president released yesterday, Vice
President Joe Biden said the government has spent $620 billion
from the stimulus and created or saved between 2.2 million and
2.8 million jobs. He predicted jobs created or retained by the
end of 2010 will number “at least” 3.5 million.

Republican Critics

“We have created over 17,000 jobs in the last month” in
Ohio, Republican state auditor Mary Taylor, a candidate for
lieutenant governor, told reporters on a conference call today
before Obama arrived. “But it’s an important fact to note that
16,800 of those jobs created were government jobs.”

The White House is kicking off a six-week focus on scores
of public works projects under way across the nation and into
the election season.

“This summer a lot more people are going to be working on
highways, building clean water projects, weatherizing homes, and
– and they’ll be drawing paychecks that they wouldn’t have
otherwise drawn,” Biden said at a briefing yesterday that was
part of the administration’s focus on the stimulus.

The economy will be a top issue in the November elections
that will determine which party controls the House and Senate.

The Columbus area is represented in the House by freshman
Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy. She was elected in 2008, the first
Democrat to represent the district since 1982, according to the
Almanac of American Politics. The non-partisan Cook Political
Report rates her race against Republican former state Senator
Steve Stivers as a toss-up.

“There’s a feeling of disenchantment, disillusionment,
discouragement — a feeling that no politician is going to be
able to do much to turn the situation around,” Paul Beck, a
political science professor at Ohio State University in
Columbus, said of voter sentiment in the state.

“Until the private sector really turns around you’re not
going to have a big surge of jobs,” said Beck.

Still, Beck said, “the stimulus money has been very
important to Ohio, it’s prevented wrenching cutbacks in Ohio.”

To contact the reporters on this story:
Kate Andersen Brower in Columbus, Ohio at
kandersen7@bloomberg.net;
Roger Runningen in Washington at
rrunningen@bloomberg.net