"White House Will Consider Any Online Petition That Gets 5,000 Signatures"

The White House has a new initiative:

“The idea behind ‘We the People’ – as the new program will be known – is that anyone with an idea or cause can go to the White House’s website, and make a public pitch for support. If the idea gets 5,000 backers within 30 days, said White House spokeswoman Sandra Abrevaya, a ‘working group of policy officials’ will respond.” You can check out the White House website here.

It won't get 5,000 comments, but I have a petition:

The administration should propose an aggressive job creation package as soon as possible, and apologize for not doing so sooner.

The White House website says:

Creating or signing a petition is just the first step. It’s up to you to build support...

I was kind of hoping the administration would help to "build support" for a job creation package, that's been a problem all along. But I suppose I shouldn't expect things to change now.

Maybe Obama will surprise us when he gives his jobs speech later this week (if Boehner will let him talk), and unlike the last time maybe the administration will follow up and do what they can to build the support such a program would require -- given the size of the employment problem it's worth trying -- but I'm not expecting that to happen.