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A recent CNBC All-America Economic survey found that just 24 percent of Americans say they are extremely or quite confident in the president's economic policies and goals, while 44 percent say they have no confidence at all in the president on the economy. The survey put Obama's support on the economy 15 percentage points lower than in August 2010, when the unemployment rate was 9.5 percent, compared with 5.9 percent today.

Read MoreCEOs to Obama: You still don't get it

What does the American public know that seems to be escaping President Obama? The reality is that our economy has been unable to create enough jobs even to keep pace with the number of people entering the employable population (those 16 years old and above who are not in an institution or serving in the military). According to the survey, the BLS uses to calculate the unemployment rate, since the president took office in January 2009, the employable population has increased by 13.7 million people. Unfortunately, the number of people employed has increased by only 4.5 million. That's 9.2 million more people than jobs. That's a serious problem.

Why, then, did the official unemployment rate decline 1.9 percentage points from 7.8 percent when the President took office to 5.9 percent in September? People dropping out of the labor force has been the primary driver reflecting the headline unemployment rate's fundamental flaw: It fails to count people as unemployed unless they have looked for work in the past month, which means that both the unemployment rate and the labor participation rate can decline because people are dropping out of the labor force rather than because they are finding jobs.

Read MoreObama to CEOs: Quit complaining

The unemployment rate's unreliability in an era of declining labor participation is hardly a secret. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen noted in March that lower labor participation can mean that the "unemployment rate is overstating the progress in the labor market."

So, how has President Obama been doing on this economic measure? The labor participation rate has been at or below 63 percent for 11 of the past 12 months. The last time it was as low as 63 percent prior to President Obama taking office was 37 years ago in April of 1978 during the Carter administration. In September, it was 62.7 percent, an Obama administration record low. Labor participation was last as low as 62.7 percent in February of 1978, also during the Carter administration.

When the president took office the labor participation rate was 65.7 percent, 3 percentage points higher than it was in September. Had September's labor participation rate been 65.7 percent, the unemployment rate would have been 10.2 percent, or 2.4 percentage points higher than when President Obama took office. In other words, but for the decline in labor participation, the unemployment rate would today be significantly higher than it was when the president took office. That means the decline in the unemployment rate to 5.9 percent in September was solely attributable to the decline in labor participation.

The president's supporters often argue that declining labor participation is the result of baby boomers retiring rather than the president's economic policies. So, let's avoid the retirement issue and look at the labor participation rate for those ages 25 to 54, prime working age Americans.

When the president took office the labor participation rate for this group was 82.8 percent. By September of this year it had declined 2.1 percentage points to 80.7 percent. Prior to President Obama taking office, the last time labor participation for this group of Americans was below 81 percent was 1984, during the early years of the Reagan Recovery. Under President Obama, it has been below 81 percent for 8 of the last 12 months.

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Obama has failed on jobs: CEO

Rand Paul: Middle East: intervention prime source of the chaos
Senator Rand Paul September 18, 2014 Madam President, if there is a theme that connects the dots in the Middle East, it is that chaos breeds terrorism. What much of the foreign policy elite...

By: TheWesternWorld

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Rand Paul: Middle East: intervention prime source of the chaos - Video

Rand Paul: We shouldn #39;t arm rebels
Sen. Rand Paul tells Wolf Blitzer that we have to do something about ISIS, but arming the Syrian rebels shouldn #39;t be the answer.

By: CNN

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Rand Paul: We shouldn't arm rebels - Video

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Wolf Blitzer's interview with Rand Paul will air in full on CNN's "The Situation Room" at 5 p.m. ET

(CNN) -- After meeting with NAACP leaders in Ferguson, Missouri, Sen. Rand Paul told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that the Republicans Party's biggest mistake in recent decades has been not reaching out to African-American voters.

The Kentucky Republican, who said his meeting went "very well," said he laid out his views on demilitarizing police, reforming the criminal justice system and boosting urban economies.

"I don't want to characterize how everybody else feels about what I said, but I think it was a good opening to the conversation," Paul said in an interview set to air Friday. "I think in the Republican Party, the biggest mistake we've made in the last several decades is we haven't gone into the African American community, into the NAACP and say you know what, we are concerned about what's going on in your cities and we have plans. They may be different than the Democrats, but we do have plans and we do want to help."

According to his office, participants in the meeting included members of the NAACP, the Urban League and several local business and church leaders.

Paul was one of the most outspoken Republicans about the police response to protests that followed the August shooting death of Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager who was killed by a police officer in Ferguson.

Angry demonstrations erupted this week in St. Louis after another black teenager was fatally shot by a white police officer. Supporters of Brown were set to begin a weekend of marches and civil disobedience on Friday, dubbed the "Weekend of Resistance."

"There's a sense of tension and unease that goes beyond just the shootings. I think the shooting has brought this to the surface, but there's a sense of unease in the country," Paul told Blitzer.

"Black unemployment is twice white unemployment and has been for decade after decade," he added. "I know this president cares about trying to improve it but it hasn't gotten better."

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Rand Paul reaches out to African Americans for GOP in Ferguson

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) made one of the boldest and most memorable statementson the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Mo., going a place members of his party wouldn'ttouch with a 10-foot pole.

Now, he's literally goneto the place -- as in, Ferguson -- where he's meeting with the NAACP, the Urban League and other church and business leaders about criminal justice.

A cynic would say that Paul, a likely 2016 presidential contender, is simply trying to expand his appeal.

That cynic wouldn't be entirely wrong.

I am a politician, and I do recognize that [Republicans]havent done very well with people who live in cities -- primarily African Americans -- and I do think we need to do better, he said in a phone interview from Ferguson. The thing I found is that you might interview 20 people, and you find that they are not ready to vote for a Republican yet, but they are interested in Republicans competing for their vote and showing up in their communities.

Paul has been on something of an urban America tour, meeting with leaders all over the country. He is the closest thing the GOP has to a race man, unafraid to put himself in the shoes of African Americans and to talk about disparities.

But at the same time, this is a relatively new effort for him. And for a guy who in his first campaign struggledwithquestions about the Civil Rights Act, thediscovery does coincide with his increasing national political ambitions.

"I think Ive discovered more of urban America from being elected than not being elected. I grew up in a small rural town, so from a firsthand experience, I wasn't as aware," he said. "But as a senator ... Ive tried to learn about problems that I frankly didnt know as much about. And as I met with community leaders, Ive discovered that there were things like many people didnt have the right to vote, and I wasnt aware of that. And since that time, Ive become more active in those issues."

But the education of Rand Paul is also about national politics, and it's likely hewill have an even bigger platform to speak to and about urban America come 2015 and early 2016. This couldpose challenges for his party and for Democrats, who seem to be focused on a different part of the Obama coalition.

Paul didn't want to speak about the specifics of the case in Ferguson, where a grand jury is still deciding whether to charge Darren Wilson, the officerwho shot and killed Michael Brown. But it's clear that what happened there will become an inflection point and a symbol long after the unrest is over and the case is decided.

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The Fix: Rand Paul is in Ferguson. Heres why.