The White House budget office forecast on Thursday that unemployment would remain at 9 percent through the 2012 presidential election year, an outlook that it said calls for the sort of the job-creating tax cuts and spending President Obama will propose next week. 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. While the budget officeâs unemployment forecast for 2012 is no surprise given similar private sector projections, it amounts to the White Houseâs official acknowledgement of the political hurdle in Mr. Obamaâs path to re-election. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/02/b...e-expects-persistently-high-unemployment.html Given the admission, it will prob be much worse. Has Obama already given up?