Stimulation 2.0 (excerpts, with video)

"Obama Defends Stimulus in Effort to Get Bill Through Congress" (WaPo):

President Obama mounted a staunch defense today of the economic stimulus plan now before Congress, chiding critics who want it to focus primarily on tax cuts and asserting that Americans rejected their theories in the November elections.

"Obama To Circumvent Media By Selling Stim Package Directly To Public Via Video" (Greg Sargent-The Plum Line, with video):

Here it is: President Obama’s first major effort to use his massive campaign email list and communications apparatus to get around the filter of the big news orgs in order to personally sell his agenda directly to the American people.

As noted below, Obama gave five interviews to the major networks yesterday, and tried to use them to sell his stimulus package. But the withdrawal of Tom Dashle dominated the coverage and blotted out his economic message.

Obama’s solution: Later this morning, David Plouffe and Obama’s reconfigured campaign apparatus, Organizing for America, will blast out an email to his 13-million-strong list with a new video featuring selected footage from the five interviews in which he pushed for his stim package.

A Dem operative sends me an advance copy of the email and the vid:

The email, which you can read here, invites readers to watch the vid at Economic Recovery house parties this weekend and asks them to send the vid to everyone they know.

Critics have been pushing Obama to work harder to sell his stim package. Here’s one way he intends to do that — by speaking directly to the American people via videos to his list.

Barack Obama