While many Americans spent the Labor Day holiday saying goodbye to summer, President Obama addressed the dismal economy at a speech in Detroit.  The GOP hopefuls vying for the president’s job also spent the day campaigning.

Obama used Monday’s speech to pressure Congress to move fast on a jobs bill.

“We're going to see if we’ve got some straight shooters, see if congressional Republicans can put country before party. We’re going to give them a plan and say, ‘Do you want to create jobs?...Show us what you’ve got,’” the Washington Post quoted the president as saying.

Meanwhile five of the top GOP candidates were in Columbia, S.C. for a Tea Party forum.  The New York Times has highlights from the event.

Rep. Michele Bachmann “pledged to repeal ‘Obamacare,’ end the appointment of powerful government ‘czars’ to oversee policy areas like immigration and the environment, and to eliminate or at least shrink the Department of Education.

Mitt Romney said Americans “simply have to rein back government to be what it was considered by the founders” and criticized Mr. Obama’s three years in office.”

Texas Gov. Rick Perry skipped the forum to return to his home state, part of which is battling a wildfire.  Perry spoke in Conway, S.C. earlier in the day saying “that the government overregulates, that taxes are too high, and that, in a jab at the other Republican candidates, ‘there is no one that has the record of job creation that I have.’ ”

Sarah Palin also spent the day politicking, though she is not a declared candidate for president.  Palin spoke at an event in New Hampshire Monday.  She used the speech to accuse President Obama of “continuing to chase industry off our shores” but declined to say whether or not she would seek the Republican nomination.

All eyes will now be on President Obama when he addresses a joint session of Congress on Thursday.