Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose

I am sure many of you watched Obama's address last night. I have to admit the man talks a very good game. However I have to be honest that from what I have read about the opinions about the stimulus plan and how TARP has played, I am unsure of whether this will help.

Perhaps that is the point. There is so much uncertainty that we need to take action in a direction to get back on our feet.

I also think that it is in the best interests of the Republicans to go along with the plan because they really have nothing to lose. If it succeeds, everyone is happy. If it fails, the Republicans can blame Obama and the Democrats for bullying them into passing the stimulus bill. If they keep resisting, Obama will keep branding the Republicans as the reason why the country is still in economic free fall since they continue to resist.

This all reminds me of the George W. Bush pushing for the war on Iraq and finding and destroying the WMDS. Republicans had the majority and a high number of Democrats threw their support in. When it turned out that there were no WMDs, the Democrats immediately blamed Bush for the SNAFU.

So here we are again. This time the roles are reversed and we are now focusing on the economy instead of the war. Different objectives, different players, but the dynamic is still the same.