In its midyear update to the budget and economic outlooks, the
Congressional Budget Office
paints a gloomy picture of the next few years. It predicts that
growth will come in around 2.3 percent this year, and only 2.7
percent next year. The deficit will clock in at about $1.3 trillion
— smaller than in the past few years, but larger than projected.
And the expected unemployment scenario won’t be much better a year
from now than it is today:

That’s bad news for everyone, but it’s especially bad for
President Obama’s reelection hopes. By the CBO’s projections, the
employment situation would be a huge drag for him if he were
running in 2016, nevermind 2012.