Governors to Obama: "We can break ground almost immediately"

With the nation's economy officially in recession, President-elect Obama met with 48 of the nation's governors yesterday in Philadelphia in a two-hour closed meeting. Governors from both parties emerged hopeful after Obama told them that any solution to the economy must include the states. Obama specifically called out to the Republican colleagues in the room and pledged “to offer you the same hand of friendship and cooperation that I offer our Democratic governors.”

Obama has vowed to infuse hundreds of billions of dollars into the nation's infrastructure and cited a similar project used in Japan in the 1990s to pull that country out of a recession. During the meeting, governors from both parties assured Obama that they could break ground almost immediately if Washington were to dedicate federal dollars for rebuilding the nation's roads, bridges, schools and airports and to expanding sources of alternative energy. Here's more from the Washington Post.