JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: Panic at the White House? Gloomy Goldman Sachs sees high unemployment, possible recession. “Alarms bells must be ringing all over Obamaland today. Unemployment on Election Day about where it is right now? Sputtering — if not stalling — economic growth? To many Americans that would sound like the car is back in the ditch — if it was ever out. . . . Goldman Sachs doesn’t have to tell you things are bad. I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. Unemployment is at 9.2 percent (11.4 percent if the official labor force hadn’t collapsed since 2008 and 16.2 percent if you include discouraged and underemployed workers.) Moreover, the economy grew at just 1.9 percent in the first quarter of this year and may have grown less than 2 percent in the second. Wages and income are going nowhere fast. When will the White House signal a change of economic direction? Will cutting tax rates and regulation ever make it on the agenda? That may be the only way Obama can win another term. And time is running short.”

I’ve said before that if Congress and the Administration knew that they would be hanged in a year unless the economy drastically improved, they’d cut taxes and regulation regardless of their rhetoric now. This may wind up putting that assertion to the test . . . .