Recommended: The Human Equation

I recommend Bob Herbet's Op Ed in the July 10 New York Times entitled The Human Equation.

In fact, thus far only about 14% of the huge stimulus package has been spent. As the Washington Post pointed out months ago, Congress in its rush to reward every special interest group they could think of, crafted a stimulus bill which won't have much effect for 12-18 months, at a time when the economy needed a stimulus ASAP.

Rightly or wrongly, we have about reached the point where in the public mind the Democrats now own the economic problems, and can't blame it much anymore on the Bush administration. Things that President Obama has kept in the executive branch, like foreign policy and the restructuring of the auto companies, have been going pretty well. Things he has delegated to Congress, like the stimulus plan, the climate bill, and the health plan, are mostly turning out to be disasters. I think the President needs to take a firmer, more assertive stand with Congress, or the Democrats will once again manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, and lose the White House next time around, despite the inept performance of the Republicans.