Irwin Stelzer, Times [1](UK)
So Obama has his stimulus bill, but he has paid a very high price. He now owns the recession. He has asked to be judged by whether this bill and other measures he will propose create or “save” 3.5m-4m jobs, the number lost so far since unemployment turned up. Forget “save” – if unemployment keeps rising, voters are not likely to rally round the slogan “It would be still worse if I hadn’t spent your trillions”. What the president has done is to promise what he certainly can’t deliver in time for the congressional elections next year – a reversal of job destruction, and millions of new jobs. If the voters prove patient in 2010, they are unlikely to remain as forgiving when the presidential election rolls round in 2012.
Look at like this, Porkulus is about to become law. So while you will gett your thirteen dollars a week, Barack Obama has bought the entire recesssion. Karl Rove is smiling.