Jobs

Barack Obama has come out and said that he's gonna create millions of jobs right off the bat. Which immediately gets me pumped in a sea-from-shining-sea, here comes America! kind of way. And I have no doubt he will create all these jobs, sending millions of Americans back to work to buy food and pay their mortgages etc etc etc. But then it occurs to me - it seems like whenever a president WANTS to create jobs, it's fairly easy for him to do. I'm sure it's not THAT simple, but there seems to be a 100% success rate when it comes to presidents deciding to create tons of jobs for people. The best example being, of course, FDR: in the midst of a crippling Depression wherein everyone in the country had about 35 cents between them, he said "you know what? Let's create a shitload of jobs" and BAM!...they did.

So as proud and excited as I am about Obama's proclamation, I guess I'm wondering about long stretches presidents seem to go WITHOUT creating jobs. How does this happen - who says "jobs? for the people? eh. we'll come back to that some other time. Arby's?" What's more important than everybody having a job? And if by making a simple decision the president gets us about 95% there, what's the holdup? Have you ever heard a president bitching "boy, I kept pushing and pushing to create more jobs, but it just never really happened"?