Obama, at his second campaign stop Friday following a dismal June jobs report, dropped a line from his speech in which he cited the faint job growth as a "step in the right direction."
The president had taken heat for the comment from both the Mitt Romney campaign and Republican National Committee.
"Seriously?" Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in an email earlier that drew attention to the remark. She noted the 80,000 jobs recorded in June are far below the 130,000 to 150,000 it takes to keep pace with population growth.
The RNC also circulated a hastily produced Web video, splicing together a news report on the June employment picture with Obama's comment.
But at a stop Friday afternoon in Pittsburgh, his last on a two-day bus tour through Ohio and Pennsylvania, Obama dropped the line -- stressing instead the work that remains.
