I find it remarkable that Obama doesn't just lie to us, the American people, but also to his Congressional allies. Nevermind getting Republicans to vote for the looting bill, there are a significant number of Democrats from conservative districts who are very nervous about the bill for a simple reason--the polls are collapsing. Obama's address was about providing political cover for wobbly Democrats.

Charles Krauthammer sums it up quite well.

The Age of Obama begins with perhaps the greatest frenzy of old-politics influence peddling ever seen in Washington. By the time the stimulus bill reached the Senate, reports the Wall Street Journal, pharmaceutical and high-tech companies were lobbying furiously for a new plan to repatriate overseas profits that would yield major tax savings. California wine growers and Florida citrus producers were fighting to change a single phrase in one provision. Substituting "planted" for "ready to market" would mean a windfall garnered from a new "bonus depreciation" incentive.

After Obama's miraculous 2008 presidential campaign, it was clear that at some point the magical mystery tour would have to end. The nation would rub its eyes and begin to emerge from its reverie. The hallucinatory Obama would give way to the mere mortal. The great ethical transformations promised would be seen as a fairy tale that all presidents tell -- and that this president told better than anyone.

I thought the awakening would take six months. It took two and a half weeks.

You can imagine if Krauthammer etal are surprised, how astonished the Democrats are to see the empire crumbling around their ears. Usually an election victory, particularly one of this magnitude means that the victors have a vision and a plan and the loser need to do some soul-searching. Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather when I heard John McCain--John McCain! say on the Senate floor that the reason Republicans lost the election was because the party had betrayed its principles and spent like drunken sailors.

Additionally, Michael Steele, the new RNC chairman, just accepted the resignations of every single staff member. A clean slate.

It appears that Republicans have confessed their sins, made penance and are rededicating themselves to Jesus in record time!

Democrats on the other hand are struggling with the cognitive dissonance of believing they have a mandate for socialism, but confronted with polls that say its still Reagan country out there. Many Democrats are acting like the opposition is somehow conspiratorial in nature, a sure sign that they do not understand why this is happening.

The saying "between a rock and a hard place" comes to mind when you consider the Democrat's political position. The actual solution to the economic crisis isn't really all that difficult. We understand why it happened and we understand what has to happen to fix it. Mitt Romney has an extremely clear and sensible plan--with explanations, on how to deal with the crisis, but for Democrats to adopt these proposals, after years of slamming the "failed economic policies of the Bush administration" would create a firestorm with their base.

Solve the problem and you make a lot of people angry. Don't solve the problem and everybody will hunt you down and kill you. Yeesh!

Mr. Obama should ask Bill to come to the White House for a meeting. Clinton faced similar circumstances and figured out how to profit politically.