…on the bottom of the screen on CNN in our lobby as I type:

Delay Means “DEEPENING DISASTER”

Guess who?

Pass the Pork Package…

…or else! (Shivers should have just gone down your spine)

E. J. Dionne on the leftymedia’s approach to all of us uppity peasants who are rooting for the GOP’s red-zone play:

Obama’s network appearances were planned as a response to a wholly unanticipated development: Republicans — short on new ideas, low on votes, and deeply unpopular in the polls — have been winning the media wars over the president’s central initiative. They have done so largely by focusing on minor bits of the stimulus that amount, as Obama said in at least two of his network interviews, to “less than 1 percent of the overall package.” But Republicans have succeeded in defining the proposal by its least significant parts.

The fact that the “stimulus” would “stimulate” more if it were paid directly to the people in cash -that it creates a tiny film of jobs, mostly for Democrat constituencies, in exchange for a ruinous avalanche of pork – is the “least significant part?”

Heather Cromar responds:

Just imagine for a moment if my two daughters took my credit card on a spending spree of their own and came back with a whopping $80, 000 bill. Now try to imagine that the little sister, who flat out opposed the whole nonsense, in complaining to me about it, happened to mention that the older sister had bought some items that were sure to make my hair stand on end the moment I found out about it. Which would be the bigger issue to me? The couple of no-nos, or the total bill that is going to set our family budget back by a considerable amount for decades?

The thing to remember as you watch the media rally, legs a-tingle, around The One; they need you to be stupid.

Five years ago, former Marine General Anthony Zinni became every liberal’s favorite general (also the only general they could name) when he came out against the Bush Administration’s strategery in Iraq.

You knew there had to be limits.  Ed Morrissey writes:

When General Anthony Zinni publicly criticized the Iraq War, he became a darling of the Left. Now that the Iraq War has all but ended in victory, he’s apparently dispensable. Zinni had been offered the position of Ambassador to Iraq, accepted it, and had even received a congratulatory phone call from Barack Obama. While he made arrangements to live in Iraq, though, Obama and Hillary Clinton changed their minds — and never bothered to tell him:

And why?

…So what happened to the man Democrats used repeatedly to bolster their efforts to undermine George Bush’s efforts in Iraq? Zinni works for a company that does a lot of business in Iraq, and supposedly the Obama administration worried about how that would look in a confirmation hearing. Another source told FP that the Obama team worried about the optics of sending two former generals as ambassadors to Iraq and Afghanistan simultaneously.

However, neither of those explanations make much sense. Given how hard Obama fought to keep Tom Daschle and his $5 million worth of work for the industry he would soon regulate, the Dyncorp position would have been hardly a burp in a Democratic-controlled Senate. Obama’s appointed 12 lobbyists to key positions already, and an ambassadorship even to a key post like Iraq wouldn’t raise an eyebrow. And who cares whether one general or two becomes Ambassador to war theaters?

Rumor also had it that Zinni had his taxes all paid up.

Let me get this straight – Bush was the dumb, fumbly one?

Preserving (also instituting) the constitutional rights of non-American-citizens caught in action against America were a key part of the Obama campaign.
Now that they’re in charge and actually have to deal with terrorists?

Not quite:

But the Obama administration appears to have determined that the rendition program was one component of the Bush administration’s war on terrorism that it could not afford to discard.

The decision underscores the fact that the battle with Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups is far from over and that even if the United States is shutting down the prisons, it is not done taking prisoners.

“Obviously you need to preserve some tools — you still have to go after the bad guys,” said an Obama administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity when discussing the legal reasoning. “The legal advisors working on this looked at rendition. It is controversial in some circles and kicked up a big storm in Europe. But if done within certain parameters, it is an acceptable practice.”

“controversial in some circles and kicked up a big storm in Europe”?  Yes – the circles that got President Obama elected, at least in part over the collective vapors because Europe didn’t heart us anymore!

One provision in one of Obama’s orders appears to preserve the CIA’s ability to detain and interrogate terrorism suspects as long as they are not held long-term. The little-noticed provision states that the instructions to close the CIA’s secret prison sites “do not refer to facilities used only to hold people on a short-term, transitory basis.”

Despite concern about rendition, Obama’s prohibition of many other counter-terrorism tools could prompt intelligence officers to resort more frequently to the “transitory” technique.

Well, I’m sure Chris Matthews will be all over this one.

Obama parties like it’s ten years ago…:

After pushing his $1.1 trillion Generational Theft Act of 2009 through the House last night, the White House apparently decided to throw itself a swank cocktail party. According to ABC’s Jake Tapper, the menu included alcoholic beverages (vodka martinis are an Obama favorite, reportedly) and wagyu steak.Yeah, “wagyu steak.” $100 per serving delicacy. I had to look it up, too.

…while FEMA (which, as we learned during the Katrina fiasco, is the President’s responsibility to run effectively) can’t power on to hundreds of thousands of freezing Kentuckians.

What’s the problem

I called my friend Kanye West. He says:

“Barack Obama hates white people“.

Ooh. Harsh stuff.

In the realm of politics, favorably comparing Barack Obama to Ronald Reagan is like comparing God to Satan.

But NPR done gone and done it any way.

The rise of Barack Obama and the historic challenges facing his presidency have prompted comparisons to past presidents such as Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. But in these very early days, there are also parallels to be drawn between Obama and a more recent occupant of the Oval Office: Ronald Reagan.

…actually Jimmy Carter comes more to mind for those of us that actually understand basic economics.

That’s not to say that there aren’t elements that Obama and Reagan have in common.For instance, they both wear neckties around their necks.

While both Presidents inherited trying economic times to say the least, it is abundantly clear that they have polar opposite remedies in mind.

It’s clear that Obama and Reagan are very different ideologically, Obama being a Democrat on the liberal side and Reagan a Republican and an iconic conservative.

One accurately saw government as the cause, not the solution and acted accordingly.

Leave it to NPR to compare these two statements and find similarity:

Most people who remember Reagan’s speech remember him saying government is not the solution. But Edwards recalls that Reagan also said this: “Now, so there will be no misunderstanding, it is not my intention to do away with government. It is, rather, to make it work — work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it.”

Compare that to Obama’s inaugural address, in which he said the question is not whether the government is too big or too small, “but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. Those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account.”

Barack Obama, despite empty rhetoric to the contrary (watch what he does folks, not what he says), sees government as the solution, despite it being the cause.

Despite the fact that government stimulus programs don’t work (because they weren’t big enough?!) and despite TARP monies actually freezing credit even further, Obama proposes nearly a trillion dollars of government spending including money for the arts, and sod for the mall, among other disgustingly obvious liberal pet projects.

All in the face of the fact that Reagan’s actions set forth the largest and longest run of economic growth and prosperity in American history.

A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from others’.

Obama and his book-learned elite cronies put our futures in great peril by electing to consider what Reagan did and do the opposite.

And why not? Look where it got us…and Jimmy Carter.

[former Rep. Mickey Edwards of Oklahoma] is one of a number of prominent Republicans who say they voted for Obama. The list includes several of Reagan’s top advisers, such as Gen. Colin Powell and former Reagan Chief of Staff Ken Duberstein. Edwards goes so far as to wonder whether the former president himself, if he were still alive, might have thought about voting Democratic in 2008.

Not a chance.

Republicans of today couldn’t touch the garment of Ronald Reagan. Prominent conservatives that voted for Obama, the slim and now meaningless minority that they represent, did so for a lack of top-down conservative leadership on the part of the Republican party. Some even did so to send a message to the party.

Ronald Reagan was a man of action and leadership. Action that gave gravity to his words. Leadership borne in true change in our government, not Obama’s brand of more of the same sold as Change^©.

Barack Obama is a man of words; a lack of corresponding action and experience rendering his words even more useless to all but those Americans deliberately marginalized by he and his ilk.

To:  President Barack Obama

From:  Mitch Berg – American, Citizen, Accidental Constituent

Re:  Geese and Ganders

Mr. President,

As a person with an innate notion of common sense and right and wrong, I don’t disagree that it’s really, really bad PR for Wall Street firms and banks that are asking for government bailouts to be giving out nearly $20 billion in bonuses.

The tongue-lashing you gave them…:

Summoning reporters after a closed meeting with Mr. Geithner, Mr. Obama blasted earlier news that Wall Street had paid out $18.4 billion in bonuses, calling it “the height of irresponsibility” and “shameful.””There will be time for them to make profits, and there will be time for them to get bonuses,” he said. “Now is not that time.”

The tough talk suggested a firmer stand from the administration in its oversight of banks. But it also had a political purpose: eliciting support for an expensive and unpopular bailout program that will likely require more cash from Congress.

…makes political sense.

On the other hand, the bonuses are attempts to retain top “talent” at firms that do drive this nation’s economic engine.  Right?  Wrong?  I’m not sure.

But it’s certainly no worse than the hundreds of millions – billions – your administration is planning to give to ACORN, the National Endowment for the Arts, global warming cultists, unions, and Trojan-brand condoms – none of which brings a single job to this nation (other than, I suppose, at Trojan – although I suppose you know that recessions actually help the market for contraceptives, among other less-clinical goodies).

If I didn’t know better – and as a bitter, gun-clinging Jesus freak, you just know I don’t, right? – I’d almost thing you were trying an FDR-like bit of populist displacement, to focus the people’s attention on these (ill-timed) bonuses via the lens of your friends in tingly-leg media, to drown out questions about the pork your “stimulus” plan is shoveling.

Please get back to me.  Thanks.

That is all.

Turn down your themostat, says Obama…

…as he turns the Oval Office into a greenhouse:

The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.

In a visit to the Capitol on Tuesday, Mr. Obama surprised his former Senate colleagues by stopping to talk to reporters.

“He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.”

Hawaii?

So that whole Chicago thing was just a Bobby-Ewing-stepping-out-of-the-shower hallucination?

Why does the left hate Limbaugh so much?

It’s not just that he eats their lunch in the marketplace (markets have no meaning to the left); it’s not that he “dumbs down” the American people (a Pew study last year showed that…:

…Limbaugh’s audience is often underestimated by critics who don’t listen to the show (only 3 percent of his audience identify themselves as “liberal,” according to the nonpartisan Pew Research Center for the People and the Press). Recently, Pew reported that, on a series of “news knowledge questions,” Limbaugh’s “Dittoheads” — the defiantly self-mocking term for his faithful, supposedly brainwashed, audience — scored higher than NPR listeners.

So intelligence doesn’t matter to them either.

No.  It’s because Limbaugh is the one nationally-prominent ideological conservative who is unapologetic on the subject,and has the capability of leading people – as opposed to the party – back to where it belongs.

Todd Huston notices just how wrong that is:

I am through with Limbaugh’s supporting the long tradition of rugged American individualism, done with his harping on free trade, and up to here with his going on about the Founders and our American character. I am worn out with his bellicose talk of stopping terrorism, and so done with Limbaugh’s high profile as one of the most listened to conservative advocates in the country that I could just spit. I simply don’t want this Limbaugh character to be the sole voice of the GOP. Stop it now. Make it go away.Instead, it would be nice if just ONE of our actual, purported Republican politicians would be the voice of the GOP espousing all the conservative ideals that Limbaugh so eloquently expounds upon day in and day out. Wouldn’t it be grand if just one guy with the guts to back up the rhetoric with a voting record would become the voice of the party of conservatism?

Liberals have their Ted Kennedys and Nancy Pelosis that do no compromising. They have their “Baghdad” Jim McDermotts that cavort across the globe advocating for murderers and tyrants the world over. They’ve had their presidential candidates “reporting for duty” that have in the past been key members of committees advocating for putting our own soldiers in jail and indicting Americans for faux war crimes. For that matter, the left even has an actual ex-president that runs to the support of every tin-pot dictator in the world pretending at being a diplomat.

The left is unapologetic for its support of Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot, the biggest mass murderers in history. They are resolved to turn our foreign policy over to foreign bodies like the UN. The left is four square against freedom of religion and keen to remove uncounted numbers of our Constitutional rights from us. They hate capitalism, property rights and are against open debate in our schools… yet they say so proudly and their politicians cultivate voting records that reflect those beliefs.

There’s no “compromise” there. The left knows that politics ain’t beanball.

The Obama Administration is just like Lori Sturdevant; they want their Republicans to be nice and wishy-washy and pliable.

They want a party full of Chuck Hegels and Ron Erhards – worthless “moderate” vermin (politically speaking) who are of no use to dissenting from the majority agenda.
I figured before the election that Obama would overreach on things like the “Fairness” Doctrine, measures to silence opposition.

In my wildest dreams, I didn’t think he’d do it this fast.

I hope he continues.  He’s clearly been reading his own press; he thinks he’s invincible; that he can get away with anything.
Good.

Obama’s “radical change” from Bush’s policy on Guantanamo cribbed almost word-for-word from Bush’s policy:

Earlier today, CJ posted his examination of the Executive Orders regarding the Guantanamo Detention Facilities. His conclusion is that it bears little difference than the way the Bush Administration has been handling the situation; and that there’s enough legal loopholes in the wording, as to allow President Obama an “out”, from following through with closing the facility, should the Administration fail to solve the dilemma of what to do with the remaining detainees.

So; the adminstration of “radical change” seems to be changing little to nothing about the nation’s foreign policy, is actively moving to squelch the civil liberties of its opposition, and has turned the Democrats – who spent the last four years pantomiming as “fiscally responsible” – into crack whores with stolen gold cards.

Si, se pudo.

Remember when the giggling classes were in full smarm because John McCain didn’t have an IPhone (or whatever it was that aroused their shrill ire)?

Ahem:

Both outgoing and incoming [White House email] are out, the result, an aide explained, of an outage with the Outlook server. The aide said the outage goes beyond the press shop. The first lady’s office is also without e-mail, as are other offices.

There was no indication when the e-mail service would return. For the moment, the press office is making even more use of the loudspeaker in the briefing room.

And the executive orders that President Obama signed this morning were photocopied and are sitting on a table outside the briefing room.

I bet their websites are written in Fortran.

So now that Obama is President, is dissent still the highest form of patriotism?

Is “Questioning Authority” still a virtue?

Is “speaking truth to power” still a something to uphold and revere?

Just checking.

On Tuesday, when word got out that there’d been a flub in the Oath of Office, the assembled masses of Sorosbloggers swung into action.

“It was Roberts’ fault!  You can NOT BLAME BARACK!  IT WAS ROOOOOOOBEEEEEERTTTTTTSS FAULLLLLLLLT!”

Duly noted.

At any rate, the conspiracy-mongers have been silenced:

At 735 pm, Roberts administered the oath of office again to obama in the map room. Robert gibbs said the wh counsel, greg craig, believes the oath was fine Tuesday, but one word was out of sequence so they did this out of a “an abundance of caution.”

Perhaps Roberts could have re-notarized Obama’s birth certificate, and silenced ninnies from both sides…

I usually try to keep my criticisms of lefties, and leftism, substantive and fact-based.

Being human, I occasionally resort to sarcasm, humor and snark.  And you know it’s part of the reason you come here, so don’t try and get cute about it.

Sometimes, the best I can manage is a point-by-point fisking.

But in almost seven years of blogging, this is the first time I’ve had to sit back, scratch my eyes, re-read something, and decide that simply presenting the offending material in its full, dim, foul glory is all the criticism that material needs.

And so I present Grace Kelly – local 9/11 Truther and cog in the local DFL machine.  Her particularly wide-eyed, fabulist brand of jackboot-with-a-smile liberalism has turned up on this blog a few times in the past.

But she’s outdone herself this time.  She has summed up the collective id of the Democrat base in this country, in much the same way Rain Man summed up the cards in the casino, and presented it to the world in the form of a poem.

Lead Us President Barack Obama

At a time of darkness, the light appears
– that light is President Barack Obama.

At a time when knowledge, skill and science was disdained, a champion of knowledge, skill and science has stepped forward
– that champion is President Barack Obama.

At a time when it seemed that only corporations and the rich were represented, a representative of people appeared
– that representative is President Barack Obama.

At a time of torture, a leader of morality appears
– that leader is President Barack Obama.

At a time when the world no longer respects us as country, a reason for respect appears
– that reason is President Barack Obama.

At a time of too many wars and too much violence, we look for the wisdom of peace and diplomacy,
– that wisdom is President Barack Obama.

At a time of great economic crisis, a president who leads comes,

lead us President Barack Obama, speak for us,
lay out your plan of action,

And we the people will say
YES. WE. CAN!

I’ve been staring at this for ten minutes.

Have at it, all.  I’ve got everything…and yet nothing.

UPDATE: An emailer sends:

At a time with no flushable toilets

a man invented such a toilet

And that man was Thomas Crapper

UPDATE 2: Another emailer:

At at time when freshness eluded us
a man made freshness attainable.
And that man was Irving Douchebag.

Keep ’em coming!

UPDATE 3: The hits keep coming

At a time when bands’ names were lame, and balloons were merely toys
A man came a long and fixed both.
And that man was Count Von Zeppelin.

More!  More!

Obama’s Inauguration Speech failed to meet expectations.

His “Don Pardo” announcer notwithstanding, how could it not have.

Already he has fallen victim to soaring expectations set forth by months of rhetoric and unsubstantiated promises. Obama set himself up to fail. Here, now, and in the months to come.

One hundred and fifty million dollars later and he can’t retreat fast enough. His speech was mediocre – especially by his own standards.

Maybe by design.

Might I lend a hand?

My fellow citizens:

(more…)

For some reason I don’t feel as safe as before. Since about noon.

Weird.

…I wish President Obama all the best.  It would be a great thing for this country if he were not a resounding flop.

As a pragmatist who pays attention to history?  I think Obama, with his gigantistic statist ambitions and “vote present” mentality, has the potential to be the worst, weakest, most disastrous president of my cognitive lifetime.  And that’s if his more authoritarian notions – the permanent compaign, the clamping down on freedom of speech – don’t come to pass.

For today, I’ll focus on the former.  Good luck, Mr. President.  Unlike some of your more deranged fans’ behavior over the past eight years, my fellow conservatives and I are a loyal opposition.

But we are watching.  You get no more free passes.  And while conservatism’s been on the ropes for the past four years, we’re in much better shape for a comeback than, say 35 years ago.  Another Gingrich Revolution awaits you in two years if you’re not a whole lot smarter than your administration seems to be starting out.

At any rate, good luck and God Bless America.

NPR continues its endless hagiography with this episode of This American Life, entitled the “Inauguration Issue”, which should be called “White Liberals Vent Their Anger Over Having To Put Up With Cognitive Dissonance”.

Audibly-granola-chomping environmentalist:

“All of a sudden, it seemed like the kind of world where people and countries can work together again!”

It’s the kind of thing that’s worth putting in a time capsule for people to understand the madness of this era.

Andrew Breitbart at Big Hollywood on ithe cavalcade of hypocritical celebs who, mirabile dictu, are pledging to change the world for the better now that Bush is out of office.

Because, y’know, he kept them all in handcuffs and locked in the basement of a Halliburton office:

Moore’s nauseating video [watch the whole nauseating thing here] — which, like Steven Soderbergh’s “Oceans” franchise, grants a pristine look into the modern celebrity’s sense of self-importance — is not a sign of desire to serve the country under Obama. Watch, by March this pledge like New Year’s resolutions will fall by the wayside. It is a sign that the Democrat is in the White House now. It is a sign that they get to sleep again in the Lincoln Bedroom.Twenty years ago AIDS was the number one cause for the Hollywood left. Remember the trendy red ribbons at all the self-aggrandizing awards shows? Hollywood has moved on (dot org) to better blame-your-fellow-American causes. But President Bush didn’t. And aside from Bob Geldof and Bono , they ignore this president’s demonstrable goodness

Remember – it’s Obama’s election that makes it possible for these vacuous ninnies to do what they supposedly believe is right.

And yet…:

Amazing that Geldof and Bono could valiantly fight their battles and serve humanity without being paralyzed by the Leader of the Free World 2000-2008’s all-encompassing awfulness.

Remember this video: It is a instructive relic of the era of celebrity decadence and boutique anti-Republican activism under President Bush. It is a sickening display that they want fast and easy absolution for having comported themselves like ill-behaved children for eight difficult and war-torn years.

Good luck, President Obama. The rest of you can go to hell.

Absolutely.

(Except Marisa Tomei.  She can be saved.  I can just feel it).

Dumbest of the lot:

Anthony Kiedis (”To be of service to Barack Obama,”)

Kiedis, of the Red Hot Chili Peppers (a band I hated twenty years ago) is pledging servitude.

God Bless America.

Obama won’t give up his Blackberry!

This is news?

Why should he? He’s the Chief Executive. He’s the boss.

I’m all for Obanana keeping his smart phone.

He’s not just the first African American President. He’s the first President that won’t look stupid thumbing his old racketeering pals a message.

“Dude. Like this is so cool. Did you guys see my new ride?”

He needs to be kept abreast when he’s sunning his washboard abs.

“I want to be able to have voices, other than the people who are immediately working for me, be able to reach out and send me a message about what’s happening in America.”

For example, soon-to-be disappointed voices like Peggy Joseph.

Security issues.

“I think we’re going to be able to hang on to one of these. My working assumption, and this is not new, is that anything I write on an email could end up being on CNN,” he said.

Oops. What the President-Elect meant to say was:

“Anything that CNN writes for me to say…”

National Security?

“So I make sure to think before I press ‘send’,” he said.

Let’s hope as President he thinks before he presses any buttons.

Obama’s Blackberry can take the place of his teleprompter when he’s on the fly.

“If I’m doing something stupid, somebody (in Jail-JR) in Chicago can send me an e-mail and say, ‘What are you doing?’

That might happen a lot.

Those neocons! Condoning torture!

The proposal Obama is considering would require all CIA interrogators to follow conduct outlined in the U.S. Army Field Manual, the officials said. The plans would also have the effect of shutting down secret “black site” prisons around the world where the CIA has questioned terror suspects – with all future interrogations taking place inside American military facilities.However, Obama’s changes may not be absolute. His advisers are considering adding a classified loophole to the rules that could allow the CIA to use some interrogation methods not specifically authorized by the Pentagon, the officials said, although the intent is not to use that as an opening for possible use of waterboarding.

Bad torturing neocons!

As far as the mainstream media is concerned, there is one standard of ethics for Republicans…:

In 2001, President George W. Bush nominated Chavez to a post in his cabinet as Secretary of Labor. Chavez was soon forced out because it was alleged that she had employed an illegal immigrant 10 years earlier. Subsequent investigation uncovered that Chavez had not, in fact employed the woman in question, but had sheltered her and given her some emergency assistance because the woman was threatened with domestic abuse. The woman, Marta Mercado, is now a U.S. citizen.

…and another for Democrats:

Contrast the political uproar and media storm over Chavez’ nomination with the quiescent reaction of our electeds in the halls of Congress and our pals over at CNN and the New York Times regarding President-elect Obama’s nomination of Timothy Geithner to be the Secretary of the Treasury.

Geithner, you may recall, is the man who may soon be in charge of trillions of our tax dollars who thinks paying taxes is only for the little people. While working for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 2001 to 2004, Geithner failed to pay self-employment taxes totaling more than $45,000 including interest. Interestingly, the IMF, an international entity, pays its employees’ taxes and even sends them a notice regarding the taxes owed.

“But it’s not really the same kind of thing!”

Well, yeah.  It’s actually more than the same:

Just to ram the point home that laws are meant for some and not for others, Geithner also employed an illegal immigrant as a housekeeper (“Haven’t we all?” the U.S. Senators conducting the confirmation hearing must be thinking to themselves.)

You might be saying to yourself “News flash, Berg; duh.  Of course there’s a double standard!”.  And you’d be right.

My real question:  under these circumstances – where the major media refuses to point out ethical lapses (to say nothing of double standards) on the part of the incoming administration, can you imagine them not trying to shut down talk radio and the blogs, the conservative alternative media that are the only people that ever really question Obama on anything?

The media is in a froth over BHO’s inauguration and high pre-approval ratings but Obama may find it difficult to fill the shoes given him by the people for whom he is…was…the people we…or they…were waiting for…or something like that. Sorry.

Public expectations for his performance in office far exceed those for any president in a generation.

On the eve of his inauguration Tuesday, the poll found that 65 percent of those surveyed believe Obama will be an “above average” president or better, including 28 percent who think he will be “outstanding.”

Which is all fine and good. In comparison…

According to previous pre-inauguration polls, just 47 percent believed George W. Bush would be an “above average” or “outstanding” president when he entered his first term, 56 percent thought Bill Clinton would be “above average” or better and 38 percent thought George H.W. Bush would be. The earlier pre-inaugural numbers all came from the Gallup Poll, except for Clinton’s, which came from the ABC News/Washington Post poll.

But check out these amazing predictions for Obama’s Presidency; breathtaking.

Seventy-one percent of those polled said the economy will likely improve during the first year of his presidency; 65 percent said unemployment will go down; 72 percent said the stock market would be on the rise; and 63 percent said their personal economic situation would improve.

From where we stand, a dog with a note in his mouth could accomplish that.

Some conservative economists say that additional stimulus may only prolong the grief at best, triggering runaway inflation down the road and resulting in an even more bloated federal bureaucracy.

“I think the economy will recover regardless of what Washington does. But the long-term effect here will be to reduce the standard of living of the next generation because they will be saddled with all this debt,” said Chris Edwards of the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute.

Even without the new spending proposed by Obama, the U.S. has a $1.2 trillion budget deficit this year, he noted. “If that isn’t already enough of a Keynesian stimulus, what is?”

Given some of the ideas put forth so far by the Obama administration, we may soon find ourselves wanting for that pooch.

In his annual State of the City address, Mr. Bloomberg described New York as “shaken” but “not broken,” and he put forward a nine-point plan to preserve and create 400,000 jobs, which he said he could accomplish without new government spending.

Did you hear that Jimmy Obama?

While in DC next week, this would be just about the only map you really need.