Obama's Op-Ed Is 'Boilerplate' but Dead On

Barack Obama’s Washington Post op-ed today arguing in favor of the stimulus is “a bit of a disappointment,” writes Joe Klein for Time. It’s "political boilerplate," and the president should probably stick to speeches. Still, that doesn’t change the fact that he's exactly right: We need to inject money into the system quickly, pork be damned. "If I were a member of Congress, I'd even, reluctantly, vote for a bill that included funding for a John McCain-Joe Lieberman buddy movie."

Obama, however, may have made a mistake in rolling three big goals—stimulating the economy, rebuilding infrastructure, and reforming government services—into the same bill. Only the stimulus needs to be done now, and if worthy programs need to be temporarily ditched, so be it. And by the way, the "ugly as a wart" legislative process is no reflection on Obama—it's just how things get done in DC.
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