From Slate: "Michael Grunwald, a Time magazine correspondent, this week publishes The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era, a gripping account of President Obama’s stimulus bill. Grunwald writes that the stimulus has transformed America—and American politics—in ways that we have failed to recognize."
Buy "The New New Deal" from Books and Books here.
Grunwald documents how the GOP set out from Day One of the Obama administration to foil any stimulus plan for the economy, notwithstanding the fact -- acknowledged by the outgoing Bush team -- that the economy was on the verge of a second Great Depression.
Grunwald goes on to explain the significant political achievement -- only half of what economists believed could pull the economy out of a prolonged recession -- and explores how and why Obama, a brilliant campaigner, had so much difficulty communicating the positive role of the stimulus plan to the American people.
My view is that candidate Obama really wanted to bridge the divide and under-estimated the degree to which his opposition was willing to go, to destroy his presidency. Grunwald provides details for this scenario, and in doing so provides the reader with a clear picture of the playing field in the November 2012 presidential election.
6 comments:
In a riveting account based on new documents and interviews with more than 400 sources on both sides of the aisle, award-winning reporter Michael Grunwald reveals the vivid story behind President Obama’s $800 billion stimulus bill, one of the most important and least understood pieces of legislation in the history of the country. Grunwald’s meticulous reporting shows how the stimulus, though reviled on the right and the left, helped prevent a depression while jump-starting the president’s agenda for lasting change. As ambitious and far-reaching as FDR’s New Deal, the Recovery Act is a down payment on the nation’s economic and environmental future, the purest distillation of change in the Obama era.
Gimleteye said: My view is that candidate Obama really wanted to bridge the divide and under-estimated the degree to which his opposition was willing to go, to destroy his presidency.
Question, didn't Obama have a DEMOCRATIC Congress for two years?
I never mentioned Solyndra, Fisker, UAW bailouts not GM as the lamestream media would have us believe. The auto bailouts were for Michigan and Ohio votes, this is a calculating White House capturing every segment of the liberal electorate's issues. For every author you put up complimenting hope and chains there are dozens who take the opposing view.
Obama is the most divisive president in our history, period. Bridge the divide? Surely you jest!
It may be too much to assume anon understands how voting in Congress works ... some people are not persuadable, or, even stop to recognize the avalanche of corporate money (Koch Brothers, anyone?) thrown against Obama from the first. Read the blog.
Why do you resort to insults when someone disagrees with you? The above Anon posed a different point of view, and your answer: "It may be too much to assume anon understands ... Why? Why can't you admit he/she does understand, and has a different opinion?
Good to see the GOP trolls are back.
This book seems like a good satire. At the time the stimulus was passed, Obama had a majority in Congress and a filibuster proof majority in the Senate. The Republicans could not stop it if they tried.
Obama falsely caimed the stimulus plan would prevent us from going over 8% employment. We immediately passed that threshold and have been over it ever since.
The only people who benefited from the stimulus plan were the executives of the now bankrupt companies who received money for their political connections. The American taxpayers got stuck with a trillion dollar bill and nothing to show for it.
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