Obama, Romney Avoid the Elephant in the Room

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney, in the final three months on the campaign trail, differ in their views on the state of the U.S. economy.

But both are avoiding the real problem: Europe.

Friday's U.S. employment report sent stocks soaring, as companies added a better-than-expected 163,000 jobs last month. Still, the unemployment rate crept up to 8.3% from 8.2% as some Americans left the labor market. Obama and Romney, of course, spun those numbers in their favor.

Still, the July jobs report "meaningfully changed the downward trend in unemployment," said Doug Cote, chief market strategist at ING Investment Management. "The fundamentals find a way to march forward despite global risks, and we think this is more evidence that there's resilience in the private economy."

Enter Europe into the American election news cycle.

Speeches by Obama and Romney on Friday failed to mention that Europe has continued to be a massive drag on global growth and for two years has affected sentiment in American markets.

The president chose to discuss tax cuts for the middle class, while Romney chatted about the underemployed or those who had stopped looking for work.