The economic stimulus package has been signed into law by President Obama, guaranteeing billions of dollars to individual states. Most governors are taking the money, but some Republican governors are refusing it in opposition to the stimulus package. And still others oppose the stimulus, but are taking the money anyway, because hey, it’s free money. The question in today’s Sunday Show Roundup: who wants it more?

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

Despite all the “honeymoon is over” silly talk (starts at 3:28 mark), Gallup polling shows that the drop off in Obama’s approval ratings from January highs is attributable solely to disenchantment among conservatives — and that his standing among Democrats and independents has either held steady or actually risen.

The GOP wants to party like it’s 1993. That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

You know we’re not in a good place when a piece in Bloomberg starts like this …

Asian investors won’t buy debt and mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac until they carry explicit U.S. guarantees, similar to those given on bonds issued by Bank of America Corp. or Citigroup Inc.

Halfway down into Edmund Andrews’ piece in the Times about the bank ‘stress tests’ which start this week …

In yet another sign of distress for the banks, Citigroup officials were in active talks with federal regulators on Sunday night about the government’s potentially buying a bigger chunk of the giant bank, according to a person with knowledge of the talks.

Citigroup officials approached the regulators with a plan that would allow them to convert a substantial amount of the $45 billion of preferred shares held by the government into common stock, this person said. That would give the government a much bigger ownership stake in the company, and would probably increase the government’s influence in the bank’s business dealings. Federal officials have already pressured the company to shrink itself and shake up its board.

Eric Dash has more at DealBook. Seems to be an effort to get the government to convert its preferred shares into common stock (and perhaps get other sovereign wealth funds to do the same — good point since the USG sort of is a SWF at this point) to get into a better position ahead of the ‘stress test’. This is all to avoid having to come to the Feds for another lifeline. And I confess I don’t fully grasp the value implications of the stock conversion. But it doesn’t exactly inspire one with a great deal of confidence in Citi’s viability.

And come to think of it, TPM banks with Citi. Hmmm …

Late Update: FT has a bit more. They say it would leave the US govt. with a 40% stake in Citigroup, though it seems unclear how the current shareholders can really offer anything less than a controlling stake now since the bank has essentially zero value. It all seems like some sort of desperate last minute gambit in advance of the stress test when Citi’s really not holding any cards. Sort of like proposing mini-nationalization (USG owning just under half) to get the government off the idea of eating the full meal. (The best discussion I’ve seen is this one in the Journal.)

Latter Update: As I read more about what’s happening here, I almost wonder if this is the nationalization decision, just in a way that no one quite wants to concede, since it makes even more explicit that the US is effectively in control of the bank. That said, the whole thing just seems to show that the institution is not viable. So why are the existing shareholders holding on to anything? They’re trying for yet another ad hoc temporary fix. Which may be why the Feds appear to be hesitant, if not outright balking.

John McCain best pal Carly Fiorina …

“If we don’t change, we’re going to go back to the old ways, and we’re going to continue to lose,” said Maldonado, who faulted the party’s hard line against illegal immigration. “They don’t get it on illegal immigration,” he said.

But a tough stance toward illegal immigrants was a given for the 1,250 delegates and guests at the convention. Carly Fiorina, a possible contender in the party’s U.S. Senate primary next year to challenge Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer, made them the butt of a joke in a hotel penthouse breakfast speech. When her family first moved to California, Fiorina recalled, her little brother asked, “Mommy, do they speak English there?”

“Wasn’t that prescient,” she joked, sparking a burst of guffaws.

A former Hewlett-Packard chief executive who left the troubled company with a severance package worth an estimated $21 million to $42 million, Fiorina also bucked the populist tide against lavish corporate salaries by denouncing President Obama’s effort to cap annual pay at $500,000 for leaders of banks taking federal bailout money.