Learning Curve: The Education of a President

The NY Times Magazine has a Big Interview with President Obama to run two weeks before the coming election. It's called "The Education of a President" and includes at least one revelation already raising eyebrows and generating commentary, some incredulous:

During our hour together, Obama told me he had no regrets about the broad direction of his presidency. But he did identify what he called “tactical lessons.” He let himself look too much like “the same old tax-and-spend liberal Democrat.” He realized too late that “there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects” when it comes to public works. Perhaps he should not have proposed tax breaks as part of his stimulus and instead “let the Republicans insist on the tax cuts” so it could be seen as a bipartisan compromise. (emph. added - ed.)

(forehead slap)

"Shovel ready jobs" is one of the trademark phrases of the Obama Administration, right up there with "jobs created and saved" and "tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires." But there weren't any shovel ready jobs because the lead time for such jobs are so extreme - usually to meet the environmental, regulatory, and union hurdles supported by liberals who then whine about "our crumbling infrastructure." Clueless.

We spent a trillion dollars on stimulus, with the public discussion focused on the magic incantation of "shovel ready jobs." The reality was the stimulus was a grab bag of pay-outs to liberal voting blocks under the cover of supposedly providing for infrastructure jobs that would revive the construction industry (which remains mired in depression-level unemployment). Just a few weeks ago, Democrats were saying we need another $50 billion in money for shovel ready jobs. We're now supposed to believe this? What's really grating is knowing that Obama knows he can get away with this sort of slippery rhetoric. Meanwhile, Gloria Allred will hound Meg Whitman to the end of the earth about "lies," and that is all we ever hear about.

We heard a lot about how "Bush Lied. People Died." What about this? This has been the trillion dollar education of a president who ought to have known better. I know college has become expensive, but this is ridiculous.