Obama: Hey, remember when I came up with the plan for that stimulus bill? Democrats: Um, no

(Hot Air) - I remember it. It was his finest hour. Not including the time he got Putin to back down in Georgia, of course.

Via Jake Tapper, breaking the hearts of his old friends at Salon:

“In January, I outlined a plan to help revive our faltering economy,” Obama said, “which formed the basis for a bipartisan stimulus package that passed the Congress.”

Is that true?

Democrats on Capitol Hill who support Obama say no.

Wanting Obama to win, however, none will say so on the record.

But media accounts from the time make it clear that even though Obama, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., all offered legislation to provide stimulus to the economy, congressional leaders looped them and their legislation out of negotiations…

[T]hough the bill that eventually passed more closely resembled Obama’s than either Clinton’s or McCain’s, those involved in the drafting of the legislation say it was more a matter of agreeing on a good idea [to issue rebate checks] and was not a matter of, as Obama claimed, his proposal having “formed the basis for a bipartisan stimulus package that passed the Congress.”