This also happens to be Ash Wednesday, for those who follow such things. If you do, I recommend Phil Wickham as an artist. I am a pretty big fan of "True Love" by him.

Yes, today was the day of the $787 billion stimulus in 2009. The passage of the massive package was looked upon as a preview of what the Obama administration was going to be like - swift help for the American people with the strength of majorities in Congress and a Democrat in the White House.

How things have changed.

Most of the stimulus money has yet to be spent and the reports of actual job creation are all over the place. If there has been a success within it, it has been the spending of nearly $80 billion on clean energy, much of it on job training programs that prepare workers for an industry that is growing. I particular supported the $8 billion he allocated to high-speed rail.

Interestingly, one of the biggest criticisms we see now is not of the bill itself, but actually of Republicans who railed against it, then attend ribbon cutting ceremonies for stimulus backed projects in their districts. Many are calling hypocrisy. I'm inclined to agree with the party line that hey, just because I didn't support it doesn't mean my district doesn't deserve their share. They pay the same taxes. That said, of course there's some hypocrisy involved.

Just heard David Gregory, host of Meet the Press say something I should have included in my post last night. In response to a poll showing that just 36 percent of Americans believe members of Congress should be re-elected, he said, "it is because of the process. The process is ugly." You know where the process plays out like it never has before? In the media. People who talk so much about transparency in government are living in the most transparent era ever.

Some links:

• White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs actually tweeted this New York Times story this morning.

"Just look at the outside evaluations of the stimulus. Perhaps the best-known economic research firms are IHS Global Insight, Macroeconomic Advisers and Moody’s Economy.com. They all estimate that the bill has added 1.6 million to 1.8 million jobs so far and that its ultimate impact will be roughly 2.5 million jobs."

• Here is Vice President Joe Biden in USA Today. For those who have yet to file their taxes, he is right about that tax cut. I got $400 added to my return.
• RNC Chairman Michael Steele, who calls it an "$862 billion" stimulus. I've never heard that before. I've also never heard a grown man call someone conceited. Those are shots at Steele (and his writers), however, so read the story anyway.
• The Fix has some good stuff this morning, including some of what Biden already said on a couple of shows today.
• Thomas Friedman takes on "global weirding".
  
• An...interesting take on the Winter Olympics.

Just as I was about to leave, this poll was released, showing that 65 percent of Americans strongly oppose the Citizens United ruling that opened up corporate pocketbooks during campaigns.

Finally, a pretty damning quote from the NYT: 'I used to think it would take a global financial crisis to get both parties to the table, but we just had one,' said G. William Hoagland, who was a fiscal policy adviser to Senate Republican leaders and a witness to past bipartisan budget summits. 'These days I wonder if this country is even governable.'

Have a good one.