Stimulus, Obama and Chicago Politics...

Chicago politics counts on the voter remembering what just happened or is happening, and not what happened a while ago: if a politician can lay claim to fame right before an election, that is the very best of outcomes.

Take a look here at an update on economic policy almost six months into the Obama Administration.

The stimulus was poorly designed by Congress, such that it is not now having any measurable economic effect, and the bulk of the GDP boost won't come until 2010.  When you combine this with the missed economic forecast, it means the next six months will be worse than they needed to be.

Here I would disagree: when are the next elections?

Yep. Mid-term elections, 2010.

In other words, perfect timing.


That the economy is going to really, really suck over the next 9 months because all that spending is taking too long to get into the pipeline, well, that's to serve to remind folks of what happens when President Obama wasn't in command.

That isn't too late: it is perfect timing for the next election.

Of course, the huge amount of money out there means inflation will boom post-2010, but hey, what the. The important thing is getting the mid-terms down right so that the Democrats can maintain their control heading into 2012.  Watch them blame higher costs (aka inflation) on the evil Republican Administrations and how terrible they were to the environment, which is why it is costing to so much to clean it up and Save The Planet.


Am I putting too much faith in the ability of the Obama Administration to finesse this?

Perhaps. The timing is, however, too good to be true.