How quaint it seems, looking back.
Eighteen months ago, we were told newly elected Barack H. Obama, super genius, mustn't wait for Inauguration Day. To save the country, he had to take office NOW! There was no telling how far the nation might sink, absent the immediate application of his nuance, charisma and intellect.
* "Why wait until late January to turn the Oval Office over to a new president elected in early November?" USA Today founder Al Neuharth hyperventilated. He called the delay "too long in these modern times when crises need the earliest possible attention."
* Over at PBS, Obama enthusiast Gwen Ifill fretted, "Is there any way to look at this and think to yourself that maybe what people are beginning to say is that this president-elect should be president now?"
* Peter Baker of The New York Times despaired that the lapse from election to swearing in was "such a long period in a hyperactive 24/7 fast-moving culture that we have today."
* And former New York City Mayor Ed Koch lamented that Mr. Obama's policies could not be implemented until Jan. 20, 2009. "The way things are going, an enormous amount of suffering will take place between now and then," Mr. Koch mourned.
Undoubtedly moved by these entreaties, Mr. Obama nevertheless showed heroic restraint by waiting his turn.
And then did he ever get busy stopping all that suffering!
Deploying an army of benevolent czars, he set about fulfilling his promises to fight joblessness, rein in spending, protect us from terrorism -- er, "man-caused disasters" -- and restore our standing in the world. He relied for these monumental tasks on the economic know-how gained during his days as a community organizer, the military savvy that is the hallmark of every Harvard Law School graduate and the knowledge of world affairs that comes with serving in the Illinois Legislature.
Soon, prosperity, fiscal discipline, security, international respect and associated sweetness and light had returned. All that remained was for the American people -- nay, for the world -- to offer humble gratitude.
Why, barring his just-in-time arrival, we might have seen unemployment hit 9, even 10 percent.
Oh wait ...
We might have had trillions of dollars in new deficit spending.
Uh ...
Or a harebrained medical takeover.
Hmm ...
Or a government-fattening "stimulus." Or a spike in terrorist murders by radical U.S. Muslims. Or a presidential apology tour of foreign nations.
See all the yuckiness we avoided by making Barack Obama the most powerful man on the planet?
It is with heavy hearts that we must contemplate the wonders he might have accomplished if only our benighted Constitution had not denied him an extra month or two in office -- and what bliss might yet be achieved if that same cruel document did not limit him to two terms.
It's a miracle!
Did anybody really doubt that President Obama's illegal alien aunt would be granted asylum and a path to citizenship in the United States even though ...
* She wasn't just an ordinary illegal alien but a "fugitive alien" -- one who had explicitly been ordered to leave the country?
* The reopening of a case once deportation has been ordered is nearly unheard of?
* No plausible argument has been made that she would be persecuted -- the basis on which asylum is supposed to be granted -- if she were deported to sunny Kenya?
* She lives at taxpayer expense in public housing in Massachusetts?
Her attorney told The Associated Press he "can't get into details on why the judge granted asylum or the exact basis for her claim."
OK, how about getting into the general basis for her claim? Unless, perish the thought, it has no basis.
If the federal government can't get its act together on a deportation case that's this clear-cut, tell me again why I should believe that its blather about "comprehensive immigration reform" isn't just candy-coated amnesty.
To reach Steve Barrett, call 423-757-6329 or e-mail sbarrett@timesfreepress.com.