The U.S. economy added 114,000 jobs in September while the unemployment rate fell to 7.8%.

The Financial Times notes it’s the lowest unemployment rate since President Obama took office.

First Read: “We continue to see these monthly jobs numbers have very little impact on the public. Yet they have had a bigger impact on the tone of the political coverage in a 24- to 48-hour period, and that helps the Obama campaign change the subject from Wednesday night’s debate. In addition, do not underestimate the psychological impact of the unemployment rate falling BELOW 8%. It’s been an anchor around the president’s leg politically for years, not months.”

Wonk Wire has a roundup of reactions.

Mitt Romney’s “widely praised performance in the first presidential debate gave his campaign a boost. History shows these kinds of gains, especially by a challenger, are often fleeting,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Historians have noted this recurring phenomenon in presidential debates: Incumbent presidents, whether articulate or otherwise, often fare poorly in their first encounter with challengers, in part because their debating skills are rusty. After nearly four years in the Oval Office, presidents are accustomed to more deference than this type of blunt face-off. For challengers, meanwhile, the first appearance onstage with a president tends to enhance their stature.”

“Mitt Romney’s challenge, with less than five weeks until Election Day, is to convince voters that the steady, decisive, in-command competitor who showed up for the first presidential debate is the real Mitt Romney,” the Washington Post reports.

“The Romney whom viewers saw next to President Obama on Wednesday night is not the candidate they’ve come to know through many months of attack ads and replayed gaffes.”

New York Times: “Mr. Romney’s senior aides warned staff members and donors that the race was hardly won. But they said the debate reversed the sagging morale of volunteers and contributors and dispelled what had been a growing notion that the race was slipping away from Mr. Romney.”