This is great stuff from President Obama, pushing hard for the stimulus. He’s an incredible communicator and this is what it looks like when he takes the gloves off for his agenda. The Obama administration has bent over backwards to bring Republicans along so far, but I think this speech is a signal that they are recognizing that the GOP is going to stick with opposition at the expense of the country. As Paul Krugman writes:

It’s time for Mr. Obama to go on the offensive. Above all, he must not shy away from pointing out that those who stand in the way of his plan, in the name of a discredited economic philosophy, are putting the nation’s future at risk. The American economy is on the edge of catastrophe, and much of the Republican Party is trying to push it over that edge.

I take it Krugman’s column was written before Obama’s speech last night, because I think this is exactly what he’s done. Hopefully it is a sustained attitude shift, and not a flash in the pot.