Obama claims stimulus working as intended

Pushing back against criticism that the stimulus has failed, President Obama used his Saturday radio address to assert that the economic stimulus package “has worked as intended.” Obama claimed the stimulus has helped state governments cut their deficits, which to my reading is a de facto state bailout. He also said that it wasn’t designed to work in four months, but to work over a period of two years (which Biden, in another out-of-sync moment with his boss, claims is 18 months), and that the stimulus wasn’t supposed to restore the country’s economic health, but “provide the boost necessary to stop the free fall.”

Is that really how the stimulus was sold? As a two-year measure that would bail out state government and extend insurance to the unemployed? The answer, quite simply, is no. We were told ad infinitum how the stimulus was an investment in infrastructure and “shovel-ready” jobs that would keep America from reaching 8.8% unemployment (*gasp*), which was sure to occur if we didn’t hurriedly ram through the massive spending package through Congress. The advertised goal wasn’t a wait-and-see approach, but to provide a short-term jolt to the economy to get the motor running once more, and to avoid a potential catastrophe argued for with what could arguably called fear-mongering.

Now we sit at 9.5% unemployment with the stimulus, higher than where the President’s economic supporters thought we’d be without the vital government cash infusion. The stimulus, by any frame of reference, failed in stopping a rise in unemployment in the short-term, and has as yet to create a significant and meaningful number of jobs. In return for nothing, America has wasted a huge amount of money, added to our national debt, and grown the size of government bureaucracy.

The reason Obama and the Democrats are asking for more time is patently clear – Americans are losing patience. Polls show increasing voter dissatisfaction, particularly in key states like Ohio, where Obama’s economic favorability rating has fallen by 12 or so points in two months. The President would have you believe that the shamefully-designed election-year timetable is actually a feature of the package, when in reality the stimulus was billed as a near-term alleviation that would stabilize us and help us regain our economic footing.

It hasn’t done that. It compounds the problem and offers nothing in the form of a solution. The economic stimulus, put simply, is a failure, and one that is more costly than we in these times can bear.

Are Levi Johnston’s 15 minutes up yet?

In the wake of Sarah Palin’s resignation from the governorship of Alaska, news networks and morning shows have been referring to the most credible source on the subject: Levi Johnston. His impeccable credentials are as follows:

1. He got Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol pregnant.
2. He doesn’t like Sarah Palin.

That’s about it, really. But that’s enough to get you interviews with CNN and the Today Show in which seasoned anchors hang on every word of your reasoned analysis. From Johnston, we learn that “fame got to Palin’s head,” that she wanted to do a reality show, and that Palin will never have his vote.

I was, in the beginning, willing to shrug off Levi Johnston as a teen stuck in a tough situation. But as he continues to get more face time and his criticism of Gov. Palin seems to ratchet up every time, I find myself more and more unable to identify with a man who is willing to go on national television and badmouth the grandmother of his child. It’s becoming clear that Mr. Johnston is trying to parlay his circumstance into 15 minutes of national notoriety, and if he has to demonstrate bad manners to do so, well, then so be it.

I don’t know, though, which is more shameful –  Mr. Johnston’s behavior or that of the national media who are so willing to treat his every harmful word as nonbiased gospel. Their goal is the same as it has always been – to unfairly paint a negative caricature to destroy her in the political realm. You will never convince me otherwise that all the media coverage of her family concerns had any other design than that. The Vice President’s daughter can be caught snorting cocaine on video (in what was in fairness a setup), but nothing to see there, folks, that’s family matters only. But the baby-daddy of Palin’s grandkid wants to spout off? It’s all fair game, baby!

I’m inclined to agree in principle with Pat Buchanan who muses that Todd Palin ought to, shall we say, take Mr. Johnston to task for the treatment of his wife and daughter. I’m not sure that Sarah Palin is the conservative savior for America, let alone a cure for the GOP’s woes, but I am certain that those inclined to hatefully Springer-ize her political career ought to be ashamed of themselves.