(Community Matters) from this morning’s Playbook
FIRST LOOK – ONE OF THE YEAR’S DEEPEST BOOKS — “The NEW New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era,” by Michael Grunwald (@MikeGrunwald) – TIME senior national correspondent, author of “The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise,” and alumnus of WashPost and Boston Globe – out Aug. 14 from Simon & Schuster – Grunwald explains why little-covered policy choices embedded in the stimulus law will long outlast this presidency: The “notional package” that Jason Furman, now principal deputy director of the White House’s National Economic Council, outlined for his boss during the transition included the crucial line, ” Stimulus as down payment on long-term goals.”
Grunwald writes: “Obama had done lots of talking about clean energy, health care, education, and infrastructure. Now he could do lots of spending. … Innovation doesn’t move in a straight line. Disruptive technologies can putter around the margins … for years … But if they get better or cheaper, at some point they can suddenly take off, challenging the status quo. And as they scale up, they get even cheaper. That’s what’s happening as solar power travels down the cost curve. … Solyndra was just a bump in the road to a clean-energy future, and we’re further down the road than most people realize. … Change isn’t always obvious. … Even before Obamacare, the Recovery Act started pushing the medical system in the directions Obama wanted it to go. …
“Vice President Biden was having a bit of fun at my expense, thanking me for my journalistic work as a Recovery Act cheerleader. ‘As you might guess, I’ve read your articles, because you’re the only guy that wrote anything remotely positive,’ he needled me. I’m generally more Debbie Downer than Little Mary Sunshine, and I told Biden this was unusual for me. He grinned. ‘I took ’em to bed, slept on ’em … ‘ We laughed. It was kind of funny because it was kind of true. At times, I did feel like I was writing about an alternative universe stimulus. … Good government is hard to quantify . It’s mostly a counterfactual achievement, measured by the lack of scandals and other flubs. …
“The new New Deal has not left an indelible mark on the national psyche the way the New Deal did. … Its iconic solar arrays and wind farms are in remote areas; its bullet trains are still question marks; its smarter grid and refundable tax cuts have mostly gone unnoticed. … The Recovery Act has already launched America on an inexorable course toward digital medicine and a digital grid, and helping to rescue the country from a second depression will always be part of its legacy as well. … Politically, the most obvious legacy of the stimulus is that politicians want nothing to do with ‘stimulus.’ … Obama still won’t say the S-word, and the bipartisan consensus for fiscal expansion during recessions has completely unraveled. … The ultimate legacy of the stimulus will be decided in 2012.” $17.32 on Amazon http://amzn.to/Kp8ZnD
Community Matters 
I was talking with some people the other day and I predicted (and offered to bet money) that if Romney becomes president (good chance he will), he will within 4 months propose a big honking stimulus, on the same order of Obama’s 2009 stimulus. It’s the best policy and Romney knows it. (The difference is if Romney asks for a stimulus the GOP House might approve it, while they will say no to Obama. That might be a reason to vote for Romney.)
It’s obvious to me the 2009 stimulus was a good thing and that we need another. The public seems to conflate “bailout” and “stimulus” which were completely different things. (Bailout=bad, imho, stimulus=good)