A "successful" press conference which included not a single tough question (nothing about the toxic asset program)and in which Obama dropped support for C02 caps. At Salon, global warming is an issue only when a Republican is president.

Obama botched the stimulus. Despite media hype about a "recovering" housing market and factory orders, even a cursory look at the actual data shows nothing of the sort. Even the dollar tanked today after Geithner went off message. Obama needs to bank goodwill and bucks for another bailout, and I bet he knows it. He should welcome budget cuts at this point.

If cap and trade--which, in Obama's version, may have brought in revenue to the feds--doesn't pass muster, than money-sink alternative energy certainly won't either, or education. About the only product that will sell in this ruined political climate is health care--reform of which actually could boost the economy. Reform has bipartisan support, and a victory on health care may restore Obama's lost political capital.

And yes, oh savvy Washington correspondent Madden, it is obvious that Obama has lost political capital on the hill, staged teleprompted news conference or not.

You wrote:

Ah Obama as not even been in offcie 60 days. They just passted the Stimulas package, how would you you expct it to start working already when much of the money ah snot yet been distributed.

Obama had a complex stimulus package ready to go almost immediately in his term--probably because we knew of the economic crisis at least six months ago, not two. Though I agree with you on the Bush mess, the Bush administration did work very closely with Obama for the period between the election and the inauguration. The very media that talked about Obama being the de facto president then now buys the administration canard that he took office "only" sixty days ago, and, omg, Obama discovered the country was headed for depression! How shocked Obama must have been!

The very slowness of the distribution is my major complaint. A simpler, direct payment to citizens would have been already working through the economy. The complexity of the stimulus slows it down--people are taking classes on how to access the money! We now have complex apparatuses just to combat fraud! Talk about a mess. Most of this spending should have been put into the budget, not the stimulus. Cap and trade, though, _should_ have been part of the stimulus because it adds value trading, but now has been exiled from the budget to death by committee.

Obama's obsession with pleasing the global wealthy is particularly troublesome. Not just morally, or in terms of the constitution, but economically. His economic team simply doesn't understand the relative efficacy of capitalizing average citizens, that citizens are not externalities to market (to be politically appeased at best) we ARE the economy.

Fixing the economy first would have played the music in the right order. No wonder we're hearing so much discord now.

Note to tangerine: blue skies are shining on me, nothing but blue skies can I see...but thanks for asking!

Let's see: incomes are down, but spending is up. Jobs continue to disappear.

So, if people aren't working, and working for less, where is that spending money coming from?

Given Americans lack of personal savings and high debt balances, is the increase in spending sustainable?

The wealthy stand to make a killing on TALF at our expense. We'v already handed out oodles of cash to the elites. What does Obama give us? More borrowing opportunities.

The media and comedians tell us that populist demands for equity and responsibility were silly and populism is now dead. We're supposed to be happy that we have a President who is an "ordinary" guy who bowls and goes to Bulls games. Isn't that enough?

No wonder people want to get high.

No mention of China owning the debt we're running up.

No mention of Clintonian anti-labor trade policies.

No mention of the globalized wealthy elite, of which Bill Clinton is the corrupt symbol.

Whether Republicans run up deficits for wars and Halliburton, or Obama runs up deficits to pay off Wall Street financiers with TALF and TARP, the little guy gets screwed either way. All we get is the chance to borrow more and pay more taxes.

Also, note no mention of environmental concerns, particularly that Obama broke his promise on CO2 cap and trade. Global warming will particularly affect the less wealthy. It will eventually cost us all.

Conason is to political analysis what Paris Hilton's lapdog is to dog fights.