Obama Wants America To Remember One Chart From The State Of The Union

In both the promotional materials for the enhanced webcast and tweets from the official White House twitter account, the President's staff emphasized that last night's State of the Union address would be somewhat chart-heavy for those inclined to look further.

They were right, and the enhanced broadcast featured several charts and statistics — some fascinating, others eye grabbing, and one baffling and useless — to try to bolster the President's message.

Still, one of very the first charts to come out during the speech was the one the President used to justify the economic record of his first term during the campaign. Versions appear on both the Obama for America and the White House sites.

By now it may very well be the President's favorite chart.

Conveniently, the chart also emphasizes the tenuous recovery, and highlights the potentially drastic implications of austerity measures like sequestration.

Here's the chart of job creation from the very beginning of the recession to the present day; the President's primary argument for the strength of the recovery: