Evan McMorris-Santoro September 2, 2011, 9:12 AM

It’s clear to Mitt Romney what Americans should do about the terrible August job numbers released Friday.

“In order to change the direction of this country, we need to change presidents,” Romney said in a statement Friday. President Obama “has failed,” he said, and it’s time for the country to move on from hope and change.

But it’s also clear to Romney what Republican primary voters should do in the wake of the ugly jobs report: go against what appears to be their nature and pick someone other than Rick Perry to be their presidential nominee next year.

Romney, facing down a surging Perry who has knocked him off as the Republican frontrunner, used the jobs report to take another in his new series of subtle swipes at the three-term governor of Texas.

“Americans need a conservative businessman to get this economy moving again, not career politicians,” Romney said Friday. “That is why I am running.”

Romney — who has run for U.S. Senate once, governor once and president twice — has been attacking Perry as a “career politician,” an easy phrase to attach to Perry’s many, many years as a Texas elected official (some of them as a Democrat.)

For its part, Team Perry has said the line is not about their guy.

Romney used to basically ignore his Republican competitors on days like this, when the focus will be on Obama and the tough economic numbers he’s contending with as he attempts to win a second term. But with Perry surging, it seems Romney needs to make the bad jobs report about his Republican rivals now, too.

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2012 Presidential Primaries, 2012 elections, Economy, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry