What is one to make of reports that the White House is resigned to persistent high unemployment through the 2012 Presidential election year?

From the New York Times:

The White House budget office forecast on Thursday that unemployment would remain at 9 percent through the 2012 presidential election year...

Next year, the projected jobless rate is 9 percent, up from 8.6 percent in the February forecast.

Unemployment will not return to the 5 percent range until 2017[*], the budget office said, reflecting the intensity of the hangover from the most severe recession since the Great Depression.

The White House's admission begs a question: What is the point of the president calling a joint session of Congress to make a speech on job creation if his administration expects no improvement in joblessness?

(Sorry...what was that? ...It's really a campaign speech? Oh... Then...never mind...)

*2017: The first year of Obama's successor's second term.