Democrats (and 1 Republican) try to change the narrative that the stimulus has "failed"

And Rendell admitted the cold reality.  Barack Obama and his White House have not been very effective advocates for said stimulus:

"Ironically, the best communicator in the history of political campaigning turned out in his first year in office to not communicate very well. They let the Republicans take the spin right from the beginning. The stimulus got beat up before one dollar was spent. What I would have done, and I've been in charge of the president, is I would have had him Tuesday night -- not Tuesday night was the inaugural ball. Wednesday night I would have had him make a speech to the nation, break down what stimulus because a lot of the stimulus, it wasn't job creation, but was safety net. But not safety net for people on welfare, safety net for hardworking Americans who lost their jobs, extending unemployment benefit. Is there anybody in the Congress -- Republicans aren't going to raise their hands and vote against that, right? Everybody is in favor of that. That was an important component of the stimulus. COBRA, health care benefits, for people who lost their jobs. But we never explained it from the get go and we lost the spin war. The stimulus has done a great job for America, but we lost the spin war. And once you lose it, it's hard to get it back.'

On the same program, California's Arnold Schwarzenegger proudly boasted that he was the only Republican Governor who embraced the stimulus, saying:

I mean, if it is teachers, if it is university professors, if it is people that are building infrastructure and stuff like that. I mean in every category, there is jobs that have been created in California, 150,000. This is 150,000 people that are going home today with a check that are providing for the family, that can buy the textbooks for their kids, that are feeling wanted and needed and feeling productive. I mean, a better job, it isn't just a job, it's all of those kind of other things. So I'm happy that we got this money. I'm happy that we have put 150,000 people to work and there will be more people that we will put to work.

But Republicans on the other Sunday morning shows kept up their consistent opposition by downplaying the fact that, well, yes, it might have created jobs, but they were jobs in state government (as if that doesn't count).  That was the line that obvious GOP presidential Tim Pawlenty, a/k/a/ "T-Paw", the Governor of Minnesota, said to David Gregory on Meet the Press :

MR. GREGORY:  But my question is do you think it worked?

GOV. PAWLENTY:  As measured by the administration's own goals and objectives, no.

MR. GREGORY:  Right.

GOV. PAWLENTY:  You know, they said they were going to...

MR. GREGORY:  What about the 12,000 jobs that were created in your state as a result of it?

GOV. PAWLENTY:  Well, these are mostly government jobs, you know.  So what we're doing is...

MR. GREGORY:  So you didn't need those?

GOV. PAWLENTY:  Well, we appreciate every job.  But the idea that government grows the economy when all they really do is extract money from taxpayers, bring it into the bureaucracy and put it back out into the economy on a political agenda is not growth, that's transferring money.

There is still approximately $320 billion in spending still has not been handed out of the stimulus, and an additional $195 billion in tax cuts are due to begin being issued out through tax returns.