That is just great! I cannot wait to use this information the next time someone tells me that Clarence Thomas is out of touch with America. Anyone who can live in Walmart parking lots, rubbing bumpers with other RV'er's, knows something about America that most politicians simply will not. Just getting to know America by driving around it is the best thing, ever. I am so happy to know this about Mr. & Mrs. Thomas. It is charming information. Thank you.

It is not quite clear to me from the article exactly how the stimulus money has helped the RV industry. Please, someone tell me what I am missing.

I take the liberty to throw in a "Happy Trails!" to those known to be RV'ing America right now.

"It is not quite clear to me from the article exactly how the stimulus money has helped the RV industry." It isn't clear to me either Kate, but I think when Obama says "It is fair for his presidency's economic performance to be judged on Elkhart's." That this signals a fairly large commitment.

Ultimately all the auto-stimulus does trickle down to all the tool+die and parts type industries. The cash for clunkers is overhyped in both directions, but I do think other stimulus programs like the one that insulates homes do come back to companies like Owens Corning in Toledo(which had a great quater) with the CEO crediting that program and labeling his company a green one.

The president being from Chicago it might not be unexpected that he has for a long time had a sort of vision for transitioning a lot of the industries in the great lakes region. I think if you listen to some of the hype comming out of CNBC in terms of CEO's in these regions it seems that if you draw a large perimeter from Chicago to Indianapolis to Dayton to Columbus to Toledo to Detroit to Flint, Grand Rapids, Oshkosh(serious military contract both Afghanistan specific and also on the M997 HEMET's+ Humvees and armor, company same name as city) to Milwaukee back to Chicago.

The economists also like this stimulus spending because infrastructure is present and capacity is most underutilized. When it comes time for the Chicago fed to releases the monthly report, they seem to always be focused upon deflation.(which eases fears permiting the bulls to make the case that no raises are forthcoming) So if Obama is going to spend more money in a region of the country that he knows most about and fits into his green vision this will be the region. In other words every dollar spent here that increases employment also increases productivity.

Of course with the ethanol joke, this is also the region of the country that is most used to gaming the "green" story.

But really unemployment in this area of the country is pretty bad(with the exception of Iowa that is technically part of Chicago fed, but not part of my box).

I think that what the "smart" guys are thinking involves a sort of targeted stimulus designed to prop up existing companies in the region in exchange for nudging them towards being more green.

Because Indiana has fairly high unemployment and a rather small economy(compared to Illinois, Michigan, Ohio) it is possible that Indiana gets more stimulus per capita.

Of course states like Kentucky and Tennessee also have manufacturing bases that might bennefit. In some way Obama is building a sort of "stimulus" that can be easily addapted using shifting metrics for hype and bullet/talking points, in much the same way that Toyota(30 small locations divided across the country, Kentucky, Michigan, California majors) Nissan(Nashville, Tennessee) and Honda(Marysville, Anna, East Liberty, OH) are just as domestic as Ford even if "foreign".

All of this sort of depends on how much deficits matter.

Also interesting to see in the comments was the long discussion on RV owners and Wal-Mart.

But what is clear is that during a recession the Fed is likely to downplay deficits, and that politicians are almost always going to downplay deficits as long as they have projects they feel are worthwhile(be it Cheney and Iraq or Obama and the "NEW Economy".

Modern Politics: How best to market the ROI of deficit spending.

Yes, it does all depend on how much deficits matter and whether taxation is the best answer for deficits and then if such taxation as would handle the problem for the government in covering its debts will do to the economy (not to mention those people the Treasury seems to be targeting for a tax raise and what they are going to do about that) and if they will choose taxation or inflation (managed, of course) to tackle cost of the whole thing. I know people who actually like the inflationary era of the late last century. They thought that rising interest rates on their investments made rising prices livable.

Yes, the comments on the discussion board were interesting. I do not think my community allows RV's to stay overnight in our Walmart's parking lot. I don't know that the RV's are a problem. I think our local ordinance had more to do with a large parking lot that had become an impromptu used car lot for local individuals with cars sitting there for months.