COVERITLIVE.COM

10:08

John Marelius - We knew it was bad. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner tells Congress the Obama administration has inherited "the worst fiscal situation in American history." Republicans say Obama's plans will make it worse. And what's year without an election in California. Get ready to vote in barely two months. So on to your questions and comments.

10:09

SignOnLiveChatModerator - John, "the worst fiscal situation in American history"? How much of this is hyperbole and how much is based in reality?

10:10

John Marelius - Well, I have no personal recollection of the Great Depression, but I don't imagine soup lines were a whole lot of fun. There's no question the current situation is bad. But I think the Obama camp is systematically trying to lower expectations so that any signs of improvement will make him look good.

10:12

SignOnLiveChatModerator -

John, Obama has been promising a lot since his inauguration, including creating or saving millions of jobs and keeping millions in their homes. Can he deliver on these promises, and if not, what risk does he run come 2010 and especially in 2012?

10:15

John Marelius - There's a point where the Bush recession becomes the Obama recession. Nobody knows where that point is, but Obama desparately wants to avoid that. Historically, a new president's party loses seats in Congress in the next election. He can probably only avoid that if people perceive the economy to be improving by 2010. By 2012, if Americans perceive that a recovery is under way, Obama should be in good shape for re-election, unless there's some foreign policy crisis.

10:17

SignOnLiveChatModerator - President Obama has been promising to reach across the aisle and build bipartisan support for his initiatives. How successful has he been?

10:17

SignOnLiveChatModerator - (John wrote a story on this topic last week. To read the story, visit http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/feb/22/1n22bipart00123-bipartisan-path-rough-governor-pre/ )

10:19

John Marelius - He probably gets points for trying, but he has little to show for his efforts at bipartisanship. He only got three Republican votes in the Senate for his stimulus package -- probably the three most liberal Republicans in the Senate -- and no Republican votes in the House. Democrats and Republicans have such different ideas about what should be done and how it should be done and represent such different constituencies, that there's a limit to how much bipartisanship is possible. Still, I think Obama gets a certain amount of credit for making overtures to Republicans, even if he doesn't get much in the way of results.

10:22

SignOnLiveChatModerator - John, let's turn to the state budget. How successful was Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in his attempts to come to a bipartisan solution to the budget crisis?

10:23

John Marelius - He was about as successful as Obama has been. In fact, the dynamics were almost identical. Schwarzenegger got all of the Democrats to vote for his budget and only three Republicans in each house of the Legislature -- the bare minimum to get to the required two-thirds vote to pass a budget.

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