Pork in the 'Stimulus' Bill

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The thing is that this bill contains some stimmulus, some good policy and spending not much related to economic stimmulus and some obvious pork.  The Democrats shot themselves in the foot by throwing everything they wanted into the bill and making it as much as spending bill as a stimmulus bill.

I must say I am disappointed in the way President Obama has handled his first, and most crucial, piece of legislation so far.  Apparently, bipartisanship for the President to this point means getting beat by both sides.  He lets the House Democrats make half of a hash out of a stimmulus bill that he is practically betting his presidency on, and he didn't even line up any validators to aggressively pitch the bill's strengths.  Then, he tries to court House Republicans over a mess of a bill and despite a lot of nice-playing, he doesn't win a vote.  Now, as the bill goes to the Senate, it looks like the minority party has emerged victorious in the spin-war about the bill and is running the table about its adjustments.  The President strode into office on a mandate for change and in his first outing, he is getting taken for a walk.  Not impressive.

Presidents need to be leaders.  It's great if they can create bipartisanship and set a better political tone.  But sometimes, when you're President, you got to knock some heads together in your own party and sometimes you have to make decisions that will just piss the opposition off.  President Obama had best sharpen his teeth, straighten out this bill, make his case and face whatever music gets played, because that's what he was elected to do.