WASHINGTON (PNN) - June 1, 2012 - The weak employment report on Friday held the potential to reshape the presidential campaign, members of both parties said, lifting Mitt Romney’s efforts to make the race all about illegitimate President Obama’s handling of the economy and making it harder for Democrats to break through in their efforts to define Romney on their terms.

Democrats in particular were left off balance, sensing that most of their policy ammunition has been spent and that Republicans have nothing to gain politically from lending a hand on any compromises that might spur economic growth this year.

Obama renewed his call on Congress to enact measures to revive the economy. “Our economy is still facing some serious headwinds” from high gas prices and the financial crisis in Europe, he said. He said Europe, in particular, is “having an impact worldwide and is starting to cast a shadow on our own” efforts to get out of this Depression.

Romney fired back that the illegitimate president was simply finding a new way to deflect blame for an economic malaise that his policies were prolonging.

Some conservative Democrats are clearly shifting away from Obama’s agenda.

Representative Jim Matheson (Utah) said he would press to increase oil and gas production on federal lands, a crucial talking point of Republican leaders; and later this month, he is likely to vote for extension of all the Bush-era tax cuts that are set to expire on January 1.

“We’ve really got ourselves to blame,” said Jared Bernstein, former chief economic adviser to Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., referring to the gridlock between the White House and Congress. “This could have been avoided if they took out some insurance against precisely this kind of anemic, fits-and-starts recovery,” said Bernstein.

“Voters are near a point in concluding that (illegitimate) President Obama simply can’t get it done on the economy,” said Steven Law, president of Crossroads GPS, a Republican “super PAC” working against Obama.