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The stimulus package was good for two reasons if you're a Republican. First, it gave the Democrats full ownership of the economy. Imagine if we were facing 2010 with the Democrats not having taken such bold action with such sweeping promises? Obama seriously could have ridden a full two years without any major policy on the subject, and he could have played "blame Bush" effectively through the midterms. Such a decisive action, so early, and on the backs almost solely of the Democrats means they paid $700 billion for ownership of the economic condition of this nation. Second, they bought a failing economy. This stimulus has not worked, and by all estimates probably won't. The Dems are already asking for another one, and the public is dead set against it.
Frankly, this overly ambitious agenda is a good thing. I'm a fan of "give them enough rope" politics. Let them enact their agenda, or try at least, and receive all the scorn of the public for doing so. Obama is already facing open revolt from the blue dogs over cap and trade and health care. A new stimulus is dead on arrival. This has taken its toll on Obama too. Ramussen, the only poll I trust, shows that Obama's peak polling performance was 65% approval on Jan. 21. His highest approval index (the spread of strongly approve minus strongly disapprove) was a +30% the next day. Today his approval sits at 51%, and has gone as low as 50% with a peak of 49% disapproval. His approval index today is at -6%, and has been as low as -8%. His agenda is taking a toll on his approval ratings, and heading into the midterms that will cost his party greatly, particularly with all the state houses and governorships they control that will pay the price. That means that, where it counts, we will win big since this election will decide the redistricting of the 2010 census. 9 seats will shift from blue states to red states (2008 red, total grows if you go by 2000 red), and they're all coming out of blue states. That means if we do well in 2010, we gain 9 house seats in 2012.
As for North Korea, they mounted a huge challenge to Obama, but it seems to have been driven mainly to shore up confidence in Kim Jong Il's failing health. Obama hasn't had a strong response, and I suspect he will either give in to a number of demands to try and assuage N. K., or we will see N. K. develop delivery capacity for its nukes.
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