POLITICS -- February 17, 2010 at 3:10 PM EDT

Cillizza: Proving Stimulus Effects a Tough Task for White House

By: Hari Sreenivasan

Washington Post reporter Chris Cillizza, author of The Fix blog, joined us again Wednesday to share his reporting and political news analysis.

It's the first anniversary of President Obama's economic stimulus bill, the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, and Cillizza said the White House faces a difficult task: arguing that the economy would have been much worse had the $787 billion stimulus not been implemented.

We also discussed some of the races to watch as the 2010 midterm election season starts. Watch for the May 18 special election to succeed the late Rep. John Murtha in Pennsylvania. Cillizza said that if Republicans win that race, it would inspire an even deeper panic within the Democratic Party than Scott Brown's Senate upset in Massachusetts.

Watch our full conversation:

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