Jobless Jitters

Fact: Unemployment is 9.5 percent.

Fact: It's probably going to get worse.

Fact: No one thinks the stimulus is having much impact.

Fact: President Obama has a problem.

Now there are all kinds of mitigating factors here, but politically speaking, they don't matter much. The administration said the jobless rate would hit 8 percent, and we're heading toward double digits. Obama inherited an economic free fall from George W. Bush, but it's his economy now.

Seems to me that the situation would be even worse without the $787 billion measure that the president pushed through Congress soon after taking office. Yes, most of the money hasn't been spent, but folks, it ain't that easy to spend hundreds of billions. If the federal dollars flowed to Bridge to Nowhere-type projects, the Republicans would quickly denounce the program as a wasteful mess.

Still, the GOP is feeling emboldened, which is why John Boehner is essentially accusing Joe Biden of lying. It was "interesting," the House minority leader said, "to hear Vice President Biden and the president mention the fact that they didn't realize how difficult an economic circumstance we were in. Now this is the greatest fabrication I have seen since I've been in Congress."

Warren Buffett said on ABC last night that the stimulus was like popping half a Viagra -- heck of an image, Warren -- and a second round might be needed (as some liberal economists warned at the time as Obama was cutting his plan to win minuscule Republican support). The back and forth over the health-care plan -- key Dems don't want to tax employer benefits, leaving a big fat revenue hole -- is stirring doubts about whether Obama can get his signature initiative passed. California is broke and the big banks won't accept its IOUs any more and Arnold is releasing parole violators early. You see the results in a CNN poll suggesting "that 53 percent believe Obama has a clear plan for solving the country's problems, down 11 percentage points since February." Not bad, but headed in the wrong direction.

Obama warned repeatedly that it would take more than a few months to dig ourselves out of this deep fiscal hole. Now we'll find out how patient the public is prepared to be.

Karl Rove crows over the numbers:

"The unemployment rate today is 9.5% -- nearly 20% higher than the Obama White House said it would be with the stimulus in place. Keith Hennessey, who worked at the Bush White House on economic policy, has noted that unemployment is now higher than the administration said it would be if nothing was done to revive the economy. There are 2.6 million fewer Americans working than Mr. Obama promised.

"The economy takes unexpected turns on every president. But what is striking about this president is how quickly he turns away from his promises. He rushed the stimulus through Congress saying we couldn't afford to wait. Now his administration is waiting to spend the money. Of the $279 billion allocated to federal agencies, only $56 billion has been paid out . . .