Doing a stimulus is short term, obviously, but it helps to create stability by giving the economy more time to recover.

People seem to forget that the first stimulus was done by Bush (with Democratic support). To blame the idea of stimulus on Democrats is just to ignore the facts.

The second one was done by Obama (with Republican support). The main difference was that the Obama stimulus was for building things, and all the money that went to businesses (such as GM) had to be paid back to the government (and subsequently was).

I was completely against the first stimulus because it was just a giveaway to banks that used it to give their CEOs million dollar bonuses. The second one was reasonable, and it seems to have worked ... Maybe not as well as we would have liked, but the only economists who will tell you it wasn't good are ones that are paid by Republicans to say that.

The stimulus worked. I saw a Crossroads GPS commercial that excoriated Obama's stimulus as a failure, because it presented Obama as promising the unemployment rate dropping to 5.6% from the estimated 7.5% by showing a graph. Then it showed what actually occurred, the unemployment rate was 10.5% when it was enacted, and it dropped to 8.1% at the time the commercial was filmed.

The problem was it was too small for a recession that was bigger and longer lasting than estimated or projected by Romer, Rubin, Sumners, and Tyson. Krugman and others argued for a $2 trillion package at the time, and the one that was passed was larded with too many tax cuts (30-40%) for those (companies and 1%) that would not generate much economic activity.

Bush and Republican economic policy of the last three decades has been promoting and practicing quackery and should be sued for malpractice and lose their license. Instead, we are at the precipice of returning these voodoo charlatans to the White House.

Biden will beat Ryan solidly, and I think public opinion polls after the debate will show at least a 60-40 split in favor of Biden winning the debate.

Ezra Klein is in the tank for the Ryan as a serious man of Washington meme which is ludicrous.

^ Except Romney and Ryan do lie or "embellish the truth," frequently.

"Whole binders full of women."

Romney's answer to the women in the workforce question was...



Go home.

What will be the most prominent soundbite from this debate?

BINDERS FULL OF WOMEN 4eva

"The 1980s are calling to ask for their foreign policy back."

zing