Gary Johnson brought down the house at Thursday night's Fox News/ Google debate when he joked about how his "next-door neighbor's two dogs have created more shovel-ready jobs than this current administration." But was Johnson the first to use it? "My dogs have created more shovel-ready work than Obama has just this week alone," Limbaugh said. More shovel-ready work for me this week than Obama has created all two and a half years." "I guess I've become show prep for the GOP debates now, too," Limbaugh told The Huffington Post in an email. UPDATE: HuffPost’s Sara Kenigsberg spoke to Johnson about the joke shortly after the GOP debate ended. He didn't know about Limbaugh telling the joke earlier today.
– He still gets points for delivery, but Gary Johnson's well-received joke at last night's debate—"My neighbor's two dogs have created more shovel-ready jobs than this president"—goes back even further than thought, notes Daily Intel. For starters, Rush Limbaugh used it before the debate on his show. "I guess I've become show prep for the GOP debates now, too," he told the Huffington Post when asked about it. But Dave Weigel at Slate points out that the line has been around on Tea Party bumper stickers and signs since 2009. "Subliminally, I wonder if this was one of the reasons the joke hit so well," writes Weigel. "There was familiarity, whether conservatives realized it or not." Johnson certainly isn't claiming credit. He said he got the line from a former Tonight Show writer before the debate. Click for more.