In six days the Age of Obamius will be upon us. The stock market will go to 41,000. Every GM car will sell. Through the Obama Miracle, all mortgage defaults will be forgiven. And the temperature of the Earth will stabilize at a comfy level, and never change.
- The Obama transition team went into crisis mode after learning that treasury secretary nominee Timothy Geithner had failed to pay a big chunk of federal taxes. New slogans were put out immediately: "He gave himself a tax cut, now it's everyone's turn." Or, "He'll save for you the way he saved for himself." Or, "He was trying to force change he could believe in." Or, "It's nothing compared to Hillary." It looked like he'd get confirmed anyway.
- The president-elect agreed that CIA Director-designate Leon Panetta must brush up on his professional skills. Panetta was seen walking into a party at the Pakistani embassy and saying to guests, "Just speak into my lapel."
- Caroline Kennedy was gently chided for saying that, if appointed senator from New York, she'd bring in Barack Obama to campaign. An Obama official said that Kennedy should understand who's running things. She responded, "I do understand, and I take the responsibility seriously."
- Attempts to compare Obama with Lincoln continued, but the Secret Service ordered Mr. Obama to stop splitting rails in his hotel room, after other guests complained about the noise.
- President-elect Obama announced that people who'd been instrumental in getting him elected had been invited to submit drafts of an inaugural address. He said the contribution from the publisher of The New York Times was quite wonderful.
- Joe Biden met with leaders in Iraq. The leaders were surprised, though, when he walked into a room wearing a button saying, "Hello, my name is..."
January 14, 2009.