Sudden Change

Olympia Snowe voted for the stimulus package, so she has an interest in painting it in the best light, so in many ways this is not surprising. But when all those earth-movers and construction sites are out on the street, adorned with the Recovery.gov logo, and all those teachers and cops and firefighters have the stimulus money to thank for their jobs being saved, the Republicans will have to come up with a reaction, quick, and I think it will go something like this:

Federal stimulus dollars have begun to flow, initiating an "amazing" number of projects and creating jobs, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) said Wednesday.

Snowe was one of three Republicans to support passage of the $787 billion stimulus package and has taken a beating form conservatives for doing so. But now that the checks are going out, she said, people can feel the benefits.

It's "paramount [for people] to see that activity, creating jobs or averting job losses," she said.

"Even those who were opposed to the stimulus spending will see some of the projects that are underway in their communities as they're initiated," she added. "I've just been meeting with a lot of municipal officials and really it is amazing the number of projects that are getting under way."

When people see all these projects going up in their area, and hear anecdotally that some friend or neighbor is working on a recovery project, there will be a benefit. The question is whether that will be enough, given the size of the package and the economic decay all around.