The U.S. economy grew at an even more sluggish pace in the 2nd quarter than previously reported, revised downward from 1.7 percent to 1.3 percent, according to the Commerce Department.

President Obama's Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Alan Krueger, said in a blog post that as a "whole, today's economic news shows that while we are still fighting back from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, we are making progress." Of the revised 2nd Quarter numbers, Krueger said, "real GDP growth in the second quarter was revised down due, in part, to a downward revision to agriculture inventories as a result of the devastating drought our nation faced this summer. The Obama Administration continues to take all available steps to mitigate the impacts of the drought, and has called on Congress to pass a farm bill that would spur growth and provide rural Americans with the certainty they deserve."

Politically what may be of more interest as we approach the presidential election are the remarks of Krueger's predecessor in the job, Austan Goolsbee, who told me on "THIS WEEK" on January 29 that as of this Fall, "if the economy's growing the way it did in 2010,…… 3 percent and above, the president is going to have major wind at his back. If it's growing less than 2 percent or if things go wrong in Europe, he's going to be facing trouble."

-Jake Tapper