President Barack Obama on Saturday urged Americans to show patience over the economy and argued that his just-concluded Asia trip was critical for U.S. exports, countering criticism he had returned empty-handed.

Democrats and particularly President Obama have been taking a lot of heat over the stimulus bill. Now, a lot of people that complain about the stimulus so loudly try to attribute the TARP bailout somehow to Obama too. Despite the fact that Obama was not President when the economy crashed and the banks were bailed out suddenly it is all his doing.

According to a new poll by Winthrop University, Southerners overwhelmingly support government programs to create jobs and assist cash-strapped states. With the unemployment rate at 10.2%, the highest rate since April 1983, Southerners, like all Americans, see the economy as their main worry. Southern Democrats strongly favor government-backed initiatives to spur economic growth, with 94.5% favoring such actions. Interestingly, 53.4% of Southern Republicans also support such actions.

Absent public job creation, it is likely that the economy will not fully recover. The official unemployment rate stands at 9.8 percent. But the Bureau of Labor Statistics acknowledges that the adjusted unemployment rate -- including part-timers looking for full-time work, and those who don’t look for work because they don’t think work is out there -- is as high as 17 percent. This means that one in six Americans does not have a job. Among certain subgroups -- notably older Americans and blacks -- the unemployment rate exceeds Depression-era unemployment.

The stimulus was supposed to halt unemployment at 8%. This is why it was passed so quickly. So when will all of your big spending big government plans work Mr. President?

Remember those Republican boasts that they would turn health care into President Obama’s Waterloo? Well, exit polls suggest that to the extent that health care was an issue in Tuesday’s elections, it worked in Democrats’ favor. But while health care won’t be Mr. Obama’s Waterloo, economic policy is starting to look like his Anzio. There was a national element to the election. Voters across America are in a bad mood, largely because of the still-grim economic situation. This bodes ill for the Democrats in the midterm elections next year — not because voters will reject their agenda, but because all indications are that a year from now unemployment will still be painfully high. Which brings me to the Anzio analogy.The World War II battle of Anzio was a classic example of the perils of being too cautious. The stimulus bill fell far short of what many economists considered appropriate. And more is needed. Yes, the economy grew fairly fast in the third quarter — but not fast enough to make significant progress on jobs. If the Democrats lose badly in the midterms, the talking heads will say that Mr. Obama tried to do too much, this is a center-right nation, and so on. But the truth is that Mr. Obama put his agenda at risk by doing too little. The fateful decision, early this year, to go for economic half-measures may haunt Democrats for years to come.

Waste, of course, is in the eye of the beholder. Among the 150,000 stimulus expenditures released last week are dozens of iPods, toilets and trips to resort hotels. But, according to the reports, those seemingly questionable purchases are being used to enhance technology in the classroom, make bathrooms accessible to the disabled and train special education teachers.