Sunday, February 15, 2009

Colleen Campbel used her column this week to criticize President Obama for what she saw as "amateurism". Yet instead of scalpel-sharp analysis, she instead offered spitballs.

So what-in the wake of the passage of Obama's top legislative priority, the largest stimulus bill of its kind, ever-does she offer as evidence of this presumed amateurism? An overly verbose press conference and Obama's decision to accept responsibility for the mistakes of his staff.

Parker dutifully ignores the singular issue which has dominated the world of media talking heads, radio jocks and writers and bloggers everywhere.

President Obama asked that there be a stimulus bill on his desk by the first week of February. Instead the bill has arrived in the middle of February.

That's not a bad start considering it's nearly $800 billion price tag makes it the largest stimulus ever (the Wa Po calculated it a 5% of GDP versuss 2% for Roosevelt's New Deal).

Despite its sheer size, the bills passage is also remarkable for the lengths to which Obama reached out to try and draw Republican support. Nearly $300 billion in tax cuts were included, and cuts were made to social programs and relief funding for states in an effort to include Republican suggestions. An open hand which was smacked away by the Republican leadership and-minus three Senators (Collins, Snowe, Specter)-Congressional Republicans.

Ironically, in voting against

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