I'd also say that the politics of getting the bill passed is well behind the curve when the president has to stump the states to raise publicity and support.

Might have been more effective if he'd called on Republican governors and mayors to come to DC, huddle with him and then off to the Hill to lobby their senators.  State and muni aid is so obviously the most needy, job-producing and fat with shovel-ready projects.

Will he learn that bi-partisanism is not a valid goal?

Will he learn that he must start very high?

Will he learn that he has to know where the bodies are buried?

Will he learn that he has to turn the screws on members of his own party.

Will he learn that he has to play hardball with the opposition never hesitating to hold them up to ridicule.

Will he learn that Republicans have no interest in solving the nation's problems as long as Democrats are in power, that they're nothing but Leninists?

CongressDaily reports the key elements of the tentative compromise:

House and Senate leaders have struck a tentative deal on a stimulus package with a top-line figure of $789.5 billion, Democratic aides said this morning. The overall mix of funding and tax provisions remains to be hashed out. One disappointment for President Obama is likely to be a scaled-back "Making Work Pay" tax credit of $400 for individuals and $800 for married couples, which falls short of his goal of $500 and $1,000. But those figures would still meet Obama's goal of providing a tax credit to 95 percent of working families. Conferees are scheduled to meet at 3 p.m. today, although that will largely be a formality. Democratic aides said House Speaker Pelosi intends to bring the bill to the floor Thursday, followed by Senate passage Friday.

Update: Ambinder adds, "The Republican Senators will pare back some of their preferred tax cuts, and the Democrats will get some of their education / state aid money restored, although both sides will have to sacrifice."

Update: ABC's George Stephanopoulos reports, "The compromise scales back the tax credits for auto and home purchases and other tax cuts. It also restores some of the House education funding that the Obama administration has called 'crucial.'"

"According to Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D) (PA-11), in mid-September of 2008, the United States of America came just three hours away from the collapse of the entire economy. In a span of 2 hours, $550 billion was drawn out of money market accounts in an electronic run on the banks.

Rep. Kanjorski: "It would have been the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it."

Kanjorski's bombshell begins to detonate at roughly 2:10 into the video." (From C-SPAN's 'Washington Journal' on Monday).

You wrote a post about 3-4 months ago  and you said something to the effect paraphrasing of course:

"Kimbo Slice was all talk.  Just what i thought."

WHat ever happened to that guy? 14 second knock out-- and he is nowhere to be seen.

Ok back to the thread topic

Why do some here think that Obama stim pack was too low  when Paul Krugman went on hardball and the RAchel Maddow show  and said that a stim pkg
of about 600B would get you almost there?
I have the links i just don't know how to put a link in here

Also the number one criticism Obama gets was he was to soft on the stim pkg. Some people here say that he should have use the bully pulpit to hit the republican before they hit him-- paraphasing

harwood cnbc says the great deal restores 9 bill of the 40 bill the centrists cut in the senate

Working to accommodate the new, lower overall limit of the bill, negotiators effectively wiped out a Senate-passed provision for a new $15,000 tax credit to defray the cost of buying a home, these officials said. The agreement would allow taxpayers to deduct the sales tax paid on new car purchases, but not the interest on loans for the same vehicles.

It also appeared a compromise was in the works on the administration's demand for school construction funds.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, told reporters that $6 billion would be set aside, and officials said it could be spent only on repair and modernization work, a limitation designed to appease the moderates.

But officials said House Democrats were holding out for as much as $9 billion.

The House and Senate conferees on the Stimulus Bill were just scheduled to get together for a final semi-ceremonial meeting to agree on the final bill. But the House folks didn't show up. Not clear what that means precisely, but does not sound promising. We'll have more for you shortly.