From Politico:

A political pattern to stimulus tour

Since Congress passed President Barack Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus bill in February, administration officials have traveled to at least 66 events across the country to tout the massive spending program or hand out stimulus cash to grateful local officials.

But a POLITICO examination of the travel reveals a distinctly political trend line: Top officials have hosted events predominantly in states that Obama won in 2008.

What's more, the examination revealed that Obama officials all but avoided Southern states that Obama lost.

It is not unusual for a presidential administration to find ways to reward

its supporters through federal largesse, particularly in this case, when the goal of the stimulus program is push money out the door to states and localities that can spend it quickly to jump-start the economy. The Bush administration was criticized in 2004 for sending Cabinet

officials on trips that critics said doubled as campaigning for the president's reelection bid.

But the numbers tell the tale: 52 of the 66 events were in states that backed Obama. And taken together, the itineraries amount to a veritable map of Obama's election-night victories -- big-money states like California and New York, swing states like Ohio and Colorado that Obama turned blue and other solidly Democratic states Obama kept in his column. events were weighted to big cities that provided Obama some of his biggest election-night margins: Cleveland, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia.

Of the other 14 events, Vice President Joe Biden and Cabinet officials often touched down in places where Obama lost narrowly and that Democrats hope to pull into their column by 2012, such as Missouri, Arizona, Montana and North Dakota.

Only two Southern states were visited by Cabinet officials for stimulus-related trips: Georgia and Kentucky, according to information provided by the White House and an examination of news releases from all 21 Cabinet-level agencies.

White House officials noted that stimulus spending is going to all 50 states based on a proportional formula. Biden holds weekly conference calls about stimulus projects with officials from all over the country, including Democrats and Republicans. As of May 28, those calls had included 46 governors, 51 mayors and 15 county executives, including officials from both parties.

And the White House sharply denied that there was any political motivation to the travel. "Politics plays no role in implementation of the Recovery Act or highlighting its successes. Period," said Liz Oxhorn, press secretary for the Recovery Act.

Still, the stimulus bill has the potential to be a publicity bonanza for the Obama administration for years to come -- through the 2010 midterm elections and beyond. As of mid-May, the administration had spent only 6 percent of the money Congress allotted for the program, and the White House says officials will continue to travel the country until all of the money is spent.

The events generally come in the form of roundtable discussions, upbeat speeches and sweeping announcements of billions of dollars for local communities. Some have all the hallmarks of campaign events, featuring banks of television cameras, flag-bedecked stages and local politicians working the crowds. Many generate the kind of admiring local media coverage that politicians crave -- and largely escape the attention of national outlets.

Read rest of story here.

Sure seems that the Stimulus Package was part of a grand strategy not to help our country but to ensure O&Co's re-election.  In other words, the American taxpayers are paying a hefty sum for the Democrats' political campaign. 

With our fawning and ever-more-totalitarianish media, the lack of coverage and debate around substantive issues, and the rapid deconstruction of our traditional government and grasping of greater executive control (Obama has appointed 21 "czars"), I'm beginning to despair that we will ever be able to wrest control of the government from this power-hungry narcissist.