Hamstrung by a right-wing Republican House of Representatives (and an divided Democratic Senate), the president finds himself unable to pass any major stimulus or economic bills these days, even as the job market continues to slow down. In its’ place he has turned to what meager options are available to him without congressional approval, including the use of the bully pulpit to encourage students, saying he wants to make “the pocket protector the new sex appeal,” among other things.

More important than these measures is the White House’s steady drumbeat of improving economic data, attempting to show that the recovery would not be nearly as far along–and that the economy would have sunk much lower–without the $787 billion stimulus package signed into law early in 2009. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. [LA Times]