Wouldn't this have been more relevant before the porkulus vote?

This is the kind of timely, incisive reporting and analysis that has made the AP what it is:

No promise from President Barack Obama is more important to the wounded economy than his vow to save or create some 3.5 million jobs in two years. In support of that bottom line, the government even tells states how many jobs they can expect to see from the spending and tax cuts.

But precise trajectories are impossible to plot and even approximations can be wildly off, as the authors of these forecasts acknowledge...Job creation is counted in different ways, but none that can isolate the stimulus package from the multitude of forces shaping the economy.

And there's no reliable way to measure how many jobs the stimulus will stop from disappearing. Companies don't report layoffs avoided by federal aid.

Excellent work, there.

Coming next week: the AP believes it is ready to break the story of the Lincoln assassination, complete with an identification of the killer...