Barack Obama had a lovely dinner with a bunch of creeps at head creep George F. Will's creepy house, and now they all love him. Larry Kudlow is in lurrrrve!

Tuesday's Inauguration of Barack Obama is all anyone's excited about these days. Today a super-excited school choir, from a down-on-its-luck corner of the country, learned that they get to perform during the festivities.

Next week's inauguration has spawned a flood of Barack Obama-themed items, a collection of merchandise that the Times reports runs from the cheap and crappy ("I ♥ Obama classic thong undies" for $8.99) to the indescribable in a family newspaper ("Obama sex toys"). But there are plenty of overpriced and relatively stylish items to be had, too, like the official Runway to Change $70 tote bags by Diane von Furstenberg and Tory Burch, and T-shirts by Zac Posen, Rachel Roy, and Donna Karan, who tells WWD that her "Inspire Change" shirt was meant to function as "a communication tool that would connect people to inspire change," whatever that means. Alas, the one thing inauguration-goers could really use—Obama-themed earmuffs—don't seem to exist. We'll exercise faith in the capitalist system and assume that there's an entrepreneur somewhere waiting for a shipment to arrive from China any minute.

Barack Obama's inauguration will be a blessed, historic event. Also, a catalyst for liberal self-caricature, starting with $4 latte-sippers watching the ceremonies in coastal Starbucks cafes. On which network?

Barack Obama is wooing the milquetoast-conservative punditocracy tonight, at George Will's house (obvs). And the Times better have the killer inside scoop, because its columnists are all up in that dinner party.

Members of Congress, who have granted themselves the exclusive right to dole out tickets to Barack Obama's inauguration, are outraged that free marketeers on Craigslist are infringing on their monopoly. [Politico]

SCOOP: Ben Smith has published a long work of college journalism by our new leader Barack Obama! Click through for highlights of this elitist Ivy League anti-war tract, starring Barack quoting Peter Tosh:

Men with unusually long ring fingers are more likely to be either a successful stock trader, or gay. So what does that tell us about the government's wise men patching up the economy?

Even though Hope came along and was supposed to kill it, negativity still plagues this nation. Take this weekend. Rather than celebrating Barack Obama's Antichrist-like ascendancy, you guys are throwing Bye Bye Bush parties.

Staff Sgt. Derrick Brooks, 26, looks enough like the handsome president-elect that he's already kind of a big deal. Barack Obama doesn't see the resemblance. Jealous much?

[Dawn breaks over the Capitol Building yesterday, while staff rehearses for Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony below; image via Getty]

Barack Obama will be sworn in with Lincoln's bible, and then he'll eat Lincoln's lunch. Seriously, the Inaugural Menu is all stuff Lincoln might've eaten. Spare us.

Last week there was some worry about who was performing at the Obama Inauguration Concert. Now our question has been answered. Which celebrities will be appearing? All of them!

Barack Obama visited a famous Washington hot dog restaurant this weekend, thrilling the good people at the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council.

Even the least cynical among us appreciate that it is in Barack Obama's best interest to paint as grim a picture of the current economic situation as possible, hence his announcement that the country is about to hit "a trillion dollar deficit." The only problem is, nobody really has a clue what one trillion means!

"Minutes 65-67: Delete 'private' Scarlett Johansson photos before surrendering Blackberry to Secret Service. Minutes 91-99: Do a little blow." [Indecision]

John McCain looked every bit the seething, uncomfortable vanquished rival in that first, awkward post-election press conference on those enormous chairs. It sounds like he's kind of still that way.

Robert Rubin, a senior counselor and director at Citigroup who helped steer the megabank into taking on more risk, is quitting amid a firestorm of criticism. Why? Because he's "tired."

Did you know that the most important thing about Barack Obama's election is the fact that he's giving hundreds of millions of dollars worth of free publicity to the makers of Blackberry? It's true.

• More than 2.6 million jobs were lost in 2008, the most since World War II ended in 1945. The unemployment rate now stands at 7.2 percent. [CNN]
• Steve Rattner may be Barack Obama's car czar, assuming several potential conflicts of interests are sorted out. [ABC, NYP]
• Hedge funds lost 18.3 percent on average in 2008 [DB]
• Merrill Lynch exec Gregory Fleming is headed off to teach at Yale. [DB]
• Dick Parsons says he has no plans to become Commerce Secretary. [DB]
• Sometimes there is justice in this world: Marc Rich was a victim of Bernie Madoff, too, and lost $10-15 million as part of the scheme. [BN]
• Bernie Madoff's home in the south of France is actually fairly modest. [BN]