Obama: “Shovel-Ready Was Not As Shovel-Ready As We Expected"

Thanks Captain Obvious...

 (Fox Nation) — President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness met today in Durham, NC at Cree Inc., a company that manufactures energy-efficient LED lighting. One of the Council’s recommendations to President Obama was to streamline the federal permit process for construction and infrastructure projects. It was explained to Obama that the permitting process can delay projects for “months to years. . . and in many cases even cause projects to be abandoned. . . I’m sure that when you implemented the Recovery Act your staff briefed you on many of these challenges.” At this point, Obama smiled and interjected, “Shovel-ready was not as. . . uh. . . shovel-ready as we expected.” The Council, led by GE’s Jeffrey Immelt, erupted in laughter.

Charles Krauthammer takes the shovel to Obama (video)

Charles Krauthammer explains President Obama's "shovel ready" error.

Krauthammer: “It’s not surprising Obama doesn’t know what a shovel ready project is. He’s never worked in the private sector”

Gateway Pundit has a partial transcript.

“Well that is quite an admission. You know, a year and a half and half a trillion dollars later he says these things that I talked about endlessly don’t exist. It’s not actually surprising that he doesn’t know what a shovel ready project is. Having never worked in the private sector he wouldn’t be sure what a project is and there isn’t a lot of shoveling at Harvard Law School.” So I can understand that this was one of the greatest “Oops” in American history. And it’s going to be hard for a democrat when you show one tape against another. They’re goint to say, “So you supported a trillion dollars offered by a president who didn’t even know that this stuff that this stuff is not going to happen?”

President Obama extracts the shovel from his mouth

Back in January of 2009, the Washington Post called "Shovel Ready" the Obama buzz word that hit pay dirt.

He keeps telling us so. On "Meet the Press," fill-in host Tom Brokaw wants to know how quickly Barack Obama can create jobs, and the president-elect promises to move fast. After all, he says, he's met with a bunch of governors "and all of them have projects that are shovel-ready."

Announcing his energy team, Obama beams about "shovel-ready projects all across the country." Unveiling his choice for education secretary, Obama plugs his plans "to start helping states and local governments with shovel-ready projects."

We now know there really weren't "shovel ready" projects all across the country. President Obama has finally been forced to concede he was wrong. There were no shovel ready projects.

In the magazine article, Mr. Obama reflects on his presidency, admitting that he let himself look too much like “the same old tax-and-spend Democrat,” realized too late that “there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects” and perhaps should have “let the Republicans insist on the tax cuts” in the stimulus.

Of course, most informed Americans knew this was a lie all along. Here is a video to celebrate President Obama's admission of the truth.

Shovel Ready