Tee hee: Obama now joking about his own giant economic failures

Via Ace, remember how angry we all were when he admitted that "shovel-ready" public works projects — the ostensible target of the stimulus — um, don't really exist? The Democrats spent weeks before he was inaugurated selling voters on the concept and did a good enough job that they ended up with a $787 billion check from Congress for their trouble. Well, get ready to turn those frowns upside down, America: It was explained to Obama [at today's event] 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.