Obama observed from Mars

[idb]

Well now I'm just confused.
The overwhelming message on this forum has been that the stimulus has been a disaster but someone that I assume is much more clever about these things than me is saying something different.

To quote Governor Rick Perry, of Texas, in last Wednesday’s Republican debate, Obama “has proven for once and for all that government spending will not create one job.”

The record demonstrates no such thing. A chart showing fluctuations of the G.D.P. over the past few years indicates a modest recovery beginning in the middle of 2009, just as the stimulus dispersals were kicking in; the recovery continuing at a decent clip for more than a year; and a severe tapering off toward the end of 2010, by which time most of the stimulus money had been spent. A visiting Martian looking at the chart might well conclude that but for the stimulus things would have been much worse, and that conclusion would be justified. Based on estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, by the end of 2010 the stimulus had created close to three million jobs, which is not far off the outcome that White House economists predicted in early 2009

Obama's Speech Does the Job : The New Yorker


What am I to think?

 

[idb]

Hmmm, here it is