Obama steps up stimulus sales pitch

With the package under fire, the president is taking his case to the nation.

Published February 5, 2009 3:10PM (EST)

Democrats may be increasingly confident that the stimulus bill will pass, and soon, but they're  pulling out the big guns anyway: President Obama is now taking his case directly to the voters.

The president's new push began Thursday, with an op-ed under his name in the Washington Post. "What Americans expect from Washington is action that matches the urgency they feel in their daily lives -- action that's swift, bold and wise enough for us to climb out of this crisis," Obama says. "In recent days, there have been misguided criticisms of this plan that echo the failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis -- the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems; that we can meet our enormous tests with half-steps and piecemeal measures; that we can ignore fundamental challenges such as energy independence and the high cost of health care and still expect our economy and our country to thrive."

The op-ed, though, is only the first step. On Monday, Obama will hold a press conference in prime time, and an address to the nation is also reportedly under consideration.


By Alex Koppelman

Alex Koppelman is a staff writer for Salon.

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