He said the Republicans found the bill to be "full of pet projects. When was the last time that we saw a bill of this magnitude move out with no earmarks in it? Not one." He said he then got from Republicans "the argument, 'Well, this is not a stimulus bill, this is a spending bill.' What do you think a stimulus is? (Spending) is the whole point." Don't suggest to me that, contrary to the views of "even conservative economists," it's "wasteful spending to stimulate."

Blasting the "ideological rigidity and gridlock" of Republicans who prefer to "do nothing, he said: "Doesn't it make sense if we're going to spend this money to solve some of the big problems that have been around for decades?" And: "Y'know, look, (this plan) is not perfect," but it's "more than a prescription for short-term spending -- it's a strategy for America's long-term growth and opportunity in areas such as renewable energy, health care, and education."

In Obama's remarks you'll search in vain for any use of "leftist" or "liberal," and almost in vain for any mention of Democratic objections such as those of Clinton-era economist Alice Rivlin (the current plan needs more focus on short-term job creation) or Sen. Kent Conrad (many of the stimulus package's provisions fail to meet Obama's own stipulations for inclusion -- that they be temporary, timely and targeted).

Nor will you see the merest suggestion that Democratic luminaries Chris Dodd and Barney Frank directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to lend vast sums to people who couldn't pay for houses they didn't need -- Fannie and Freddie thereby becoming principal causes of the mortgage liquidity crisis.

As Washington Post columnist David Broder has noted: "Nothing was more central to (Obama's) victory last fall than his claim that he could break the partisan gridlock in Washington. He wants to be like Ronald Reagan, steering his first economic measures through a Democratic House in 1981, not Bill Clinton, passing his first budget in 1993 without a single Republican vote."

As Obama now has demonstrated, this no longer is a bipartisan hour. Democrats and liberals won the election. Republicans and conservatives are the problem. There's a conservative ganglion that must be excised so progressive things can happen. The leftist Obama thus has shown himself to be neither the uniter nor the post-partisan healer of his campaign rhetoric, but an ideologized divider.

Yet by going postal, he may have galvanized conservative Republicans and recalled for them the adamant, and effective, liberal Democratic resistance to practically every Bush II initiative. In taking off the rhetorical gloves and delivering some roundhouse blows below the belt, the leftist Obama may have done conservatives a favor -- and, for a nation slow to awaken, raised the blinds.