Did he mean to say they "can't" create jobs? That actually would have been the truth.

Here's what press secretary Jay Carney said:

Carney listed legislative priorities the president believes will create jobs, including an infrastructure bank, the passage of free trade agreements, and tax cuts. But he would not say what was being done to further those goals while Congress takes a month-long vacation.

"The White House doesn't create jobs," Carney said, adding "the government, together - White House, Congress - creates policies that allow for greater job creation."

Asked whether the White House could do more, Carney said "there is no silver bullet" to creating jobs - but he didn't answer the question.

In other words, they don't have a clue. They've never had a clue. After trillions in stimulus and "qualitative easing" by the Fed, government has failed to create enough jobs to pull us out of this mess.

Duh.

By the way, this is the 7th time Obama has "pivoted" to the jobs issue:

And the story of the Administration is, in no small part, one of a constant attempt to pivot formally to jobs. Emily and I identified what seem like six really attempts at it, with the seventh starting now:

February 2009: In a speech to Congress, Obama says his economic plan will be focused on jobs.

November 2009, during the lull in health care debate: "This is my administration's overriding focus."

January 2010: "What they can expect from this administration, and I know what they can expect from you, is that we are going to have a sustained and relentless focus over the next several months on accelerating the pace of job creation, because that's priority number one."

April 2010: Post health-care, Obama goes on a bunch of "Main Street" tour stops to talk about jobs in April and May.

June 2010: The beginning of recovery summer.

December 2010: "And I think we are past the crisis point in the economy, but we now have to pivot and focus on jobs and growth."

January 2011: Obama's State of the Union focuses on jobs and afterward he makes a big jobs push (even though Egypt is taking up his, and the world's attention), launches "Startup America" initiative.

Maybe "Lucky Seven," eh?