The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." ... "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
from Ron Suskind's NY Times article "Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush"
As W's administration spokesperson, Dana Perino was well trained in creating alternate realities. Having shifted over to the Right Wing Welfare Unit Fox News, Perino seems quite comfortable continuing to believe that perception equals reality.
You see, the stimulus bill didn't work - but not because quantifiable methods cannot count exactly how many jobs were actually saved or created (though the non-partisan CBO estimates it's been 600,000 to 1.6 million). No, the real reason the stimulus failed, according to Perino, is because POLLS show people don't BELIEVE it created jobs:
"I just look at all the polling data and no one believes it."
So what this really all comes down to is not whether we have accurate ways to measure how many jobs were saved or created. No, what really matters is that we have no been able as a people to clap harder or click our heels and truly believe the stimulus works. Therefore, the stimulus hasn't worked. That's what happens when we aren't faith-based enough.