What policies are those, Mr. President? Pork barrel bills? “Stimulus” bills? Bail out bills? It sure seems to me that YOU are the one towing the Bush line.

It seems like the idea of pinning blame on Obama if his policies prolong the crisis is hopeless, judging from the experience of the Depression: Roosevelt somehow maintained high popularity despite serially wrecking the economy. I guess since Obama can’t be blamed for the onset of the crisis, he’ll be lauded for any measures he takes if it seems like he’s manfully confronting the problem, if the past is any guide.

I guess we’ll see.

I said above that goodies and giveaways never go away. However, the current economic climate presents just such an opportunity that if they ever were going to be eliminated, the pols have political cover. With rampant budget shortfalls at every level of government, this is the perfect opportunity to go to the American people and say, “We simply do not have the money to continue spending the way we have been. We’re all going to have to tighten our belts in the coming days. Other than the barest functions of government and those programs needed to prevent our most needy from homelessness and starvation, we are instituting a scaleback on all government spending, effective immediately.” And yet, we are instead heaping new entitlements on top of the ones that placed us in a position where a downturn in the economy means massive budgetary crisis.

If this package is not passed and the economy gets much worse, then Obama can claim that had we only passed his plan, we might have averted the straits we will then find ourselves in. If the package is not passed and the economy remains as it is or worsens only marginally, then Obama can claim that had we passed his plan, the economy might have recovered by now.

If his plan is passed and the economy improves or stays roughly the same, he can take credit for staving off the ruin of our economy and the eventual recovery. If his plan is passed and the economy tanks anyway, he can claim that it would have been much worse if we had neglected to pass his bill.

I don’t see any way, with a sycophantic media, that any outcome will redound to Obama’s detriment. He simply cannot be allowed to fail, and failure will only mean that it would have been worse had we not passed his giveaway scheme.

The one thing we can say for certain is that for each of the little goodies that this package includes, you can bet your sweet ass that those will never be taken away from the persons who receive them. When it comes to giveaways, there is no such thing as temporary.