The Brent Spence Bridge and the Magic of Obama

Yesterday I noted that the President's speech in front of the Brent Spence Bridge, a bridge that connects the two states of Ohio and Kentucky, was nothing more than a political maneuver targeting two GOP congressional leaders, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, who just happen to represent the states of Ohio and Kentucky respectively.

The President has said that, as part of his new stimulus package, he will use billions of tax payer dollars to repair the bridge. White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney said last week that the bridge is considered “functionally obsolete” because of its need for repairs.

Earlier this week, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer stated: "We are going to the place that connects these two states of these two leaders and we're going to talk about the American Jobs Act and what it would do for the country but also for those two states."

But I noted yesterday that it would take years for the Brent Spence Bridge project to be ready, hence the aforementioned project could not possibly create a significant number of jobs anytime soon.

However, the LA Times blog adds the following tidbit: There aren't even any plans in the pipeline to repair the Brent Spence Bridge; the plan is to build another bridge nearby. Construction on that bridge, however, is not set to begin until four years from now!

The Brent Spence Bridge... doesn't really need repairs. It's got decades of good life left in its steel spans. It's just overloaded. The bridge was built to handle 85,000 cars and trucks a day, which seemed like a lot back during construction in the Nixon era.

Today, the bridge sort of handles more than 150,000 vehicles a day with frequent jam-ups.

So, plans are not to repair or replace the Brent Spence Bridge. But to build another bridge nearby to ease the loads.

But here's the problem... The president's jobs bill is designed for "immediate" highway spending. And the new $2.3 billion... bridge is not scheduled to even start construction for probably four years... And without delays, it wouldn't be finished until 2022...

Job creation? Heh....

Nevertheless, the President is clearly a master of illusion who is capable of performing incredible feats of magic before our very own eyes. And, today, he was able to use the Brent Spence Bridge as a prop to perform another one of his magical tricks. However, as shocking as this may seem, when it comes to performing magical tricks with bridges, there is another individual who is even more skilled than the Magician-in Chief. Case in point: The London Bridge. Watch the video below in its entirety, and you be the judge!: