Obama's Katrina

First the VP says,

"We misread how bad the economy was."

Two days later the president corrects him by saying,

"I would actually -- rather than say 'misread' we had incomplete information."

He's technically correct, but this is disingenuous. The absolute jaw dropping bad economic news was not 100% confirmed when the stimulus was proposed, but it was a speeding train headed for a cliff. There was no question where it was going.

As a long time reader of Krugman he was sounding the alarm for so long that many dismissed him as the economist who cried wolf. When it became clear that the Nobel Laureate was right the new White House refused to believe how right he was. They threw up a "bipartisan" stimulus that was akin to giving aspirin for a broken leg.

Now they've spent all the political capital they have on this issue and are suddenly realizing they fucked up.

They might as well have hung a "Mission Accomplished" sign behind Obama when he signed the stimulus package.

Ugh. Maybe this is the real reason I haven't been blogging about the economy: My team is pulling a Katrina.