Mitt Romney may have hit his stride as the front-running Republican challenger following Friday's dismal jobs report, blasting President Obama not only for failing to turn around the economy but for his "indifference.''

That's a whack right to the president's gut, encompassing his biggest liabilities in a re-election campaign, even from the perspective of the people who voted for him.

Obama himself acknowledged Wednesday in a Twitter town hall meeting that he failed to anticipate the "magnitude of the recession.'' What's more, he frequently fails to convey that he's really upset about it.

That's a dangerous combination of failures and a potentially winning campaign message for Romney.

Unfortunately for Romney, he looks like the wrong messenger.

He's a former corporate executive who made a fortune in leveraged buyouts, a man who always looks as if his clothes came straight from the dry cleaner, and an awkward campaigner who has flip-flopped on some key issues. On Wednesday, the day after a campaign fundraiser at a prestigious mansion in London, the former Massachusetts governor tweeted a photo of a parlor-side tete-a-tete with British Prime Minister David Cameron.

That's a discordant image at a time when so many Americans can barely keep a roof over their heads, and it reflects Romney's continuing struggle to forge a connection with voters.

As for Obama's biggest challenge, his wobbly standing with the independent voters who are the key to his re-election was laid bare Friday in a report from the Republican polling and consulting group, Resurgent Republic.

Independents don't blame Obama for the state of the economy and they generally like him. But they question his spending policies and his leadership and they don't think relief is in sight, the firm concluded after leading focus groups in the battleground states of Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Colorado.

Ed Gillespie, a member of the firm's board of directors, described a "very sour, pessimistic mindset'' even among voters sympathetic to Obama.

"That should be disconcerting and troubling to the White House,'' he told reporters at a gathering Friday sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. "The notion that he may be over his head is emerging,''

Any suggestion from the White House that the economic crisis is lifting sounds "like nails on a chalkboard'' to these voters, he added.

Romney has smartly seized on any nail-like noises coming from the administration, mocking Obama's description of "bumps on the road to recovery,'' and doggedly pushing the slogan "Obama isn't working.'' On Friday he sought to capitalize on comments by White House advisor David Plouffe, who said, "The average American does not view the economy through the prism of GDP or unemployment rates or even monthly jobs numbers. People won't vote based on the unemployment rate, they're going to vote based on: 'How do I feel about my own situation? Do I believe the president makes decisions based on me and my family?'"

Romney seized on the first part of the quote and ignored the second part, declaring "If David Plouffe were working for me, I would fire him and then he could experience firsthand the pain of unemployment.''

A potent message coming from a flawed messenger.