From the Wall Street Journal: “White House Tiptoes Around Specific Jobs Number.”

President Barack Obama has had a lot to say in recent days about his new jobs package, though he’s tough to pin down on one important fact: the number of jobs it will create.

Private economists have offered a wide range of estimates, with some saying the plan would have little impact and with others saying it could create between 1.3 million and 1.9 million jobs next year. The White House has avoided offering a public forecast. An earlier prediction that the 2009 stimulus package would hold the unemployment rate below 8% still haunts the administration. The unemployment rate is now 9.1%.

“We just don’t do official job estimates,” Jack Lew, Mr. Obama’s budget director, said this week. Mr. Obama’s jobs plan, he emphasized, will have a positive impact on GDP and job growth.

Can’t blame them. Wouldn’t want a repeat of this: