OBAMA'S BASELINE (FOR FUTURE REFERENCE)

In order to determine how well That One does during his term in office, you will need these statistics from November 4th (via Hugh Hewitt at Townhall):

The inflation rate was 3.7%
Unemployment was 6.5%
The prime was at 4%
The Dow closed at 9,625
The NASDAQ closed at 1,780
The S&P closed at 1,005
Oil was $60 a barrel.

So, in 2012 when you ask yourself "am I better off now than I was 4 years ago?", you can figure out the answer pretty easily.

WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP

AP headline:

"Obama to seek input from Republicans on economy"

Bullshit.

He needs a grand total of 1 Republican vote in the Senate. The House Republicans are completely powerless. Yet still I'm hearing this "bipartisanship" line everywhere. Figure most of his supporters are dumb enough to believe it.

But when a Republican DOES offer suggestions?:

"You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done,"

"I won. I will trump you on that."

I hate this asshole more and more every day, and double ditto for the press that supports him without question.

I honestly thought it would take him longer than this to piss me off. Guess I was wrong.

OBAMA'S INAUGURATION SPEECH, THE SHORT VERSION

I was surprised to hear that some people were impressed with Obama's inauguration speech, thinking that it ushered in a new era of hopey-changey-something or other.

Fact is, he barely said anything at all.

I went through the full text of his speech, and boiled away anything that wasn't a tangible, quantifiable promise. That meant taking out all the rhetorical flourishes, fancied-up statements of fact, poetic opinions, and pseudo-promises containing weasel-words.

Turns out his 20 minutes of blather comes down to this:

we will create new jobs, build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines, raise health care’s quality and lower its cost.

More jobs in the contruction industry.
Price controls on health care.

Anything else you think you heard was just the slick patter of a snake-oil peddler.

THE DAY IS NOT WORTHY OF THE MAN

Basil, posting at IMAO, makes an amusing and very thought-provoking point about why celebrating Martin Luther King Jr's birthday as a Federal holiday is a dumb idea.

About a 2-3 minute read, and work safe.

GOOD LUCK

President Bush wants Obama to succeed.

Rush Limbaugh wants Obama to fail.

Me? I want him to succeed.

"Success" being defined as: low unemployment, low interest rates, low inflation, victory in our wars, lower taxes and less government regulation.

I *want* him to succeed.

But if he follows the plans he outlined in his campaign, he won't.

If he's as lucky as Bill Clinton, he'll get a Republican congress in 2010 that will FORCE him to succeed against his will.

We should be so lucky.

MY FEELINGS EXACTLY

You have to see today's Pearls Before Swine, wherein the cartoonist takes a look at saving the planet.