Oh, look, it's a self-described 1980s radical casually explaining how he turned our president-elect into a Black Panther who got, uh, "open minded" at "jazz concerts," hint hint.

Obama's not sworn in for another 11 days, but Rahm Emanuel is already said to be gutting one of his many hated enemies, Howard Dean. Presumably with a steak knife.

The most important issue of Barack Obama's impending presidency has yet to be answered. Just who, pray tell, is going to perform at his big inaugural concert bashes?? No one knows! And it's so soon!

Sure, the inauguration is twelve days away, but Barack Obama's speech today was his most public declaration that he's in charge and (Lord help us all) knows the way out of the financial apocalypse.

Anna Wintour to become ambassador to England or France?

Good luck, Michelle Obama. It's not enough to be reminiscent of Jackie Kennedy; now you have to sell clothes like her, except in a huge recession.

We were wondering about those odd title frames flashing in between an segments of an interview with Barack Obama on the Rachel Maddow Show (like "Obama♥GOP"). Left in by someone in production?

Jimmy Wales, the scandal-prone cofounder of Wikipedia, thinks Barack Obama's first priority should be creating government websites anyone can edit. Translation: A bailout for makers of wikis.

Just before Anne Hathaway received Mary Hart's advice to shut up and bleach, the actress was on the Palm Springs red carpet with stern words for onetime paramour Barack Obama.

It's a fun new game and you can play along at home! Just place our president-elect's name in a list of names of shady characters. Then get rich on the teevee!

Considering Barack Obama offered the job of Surgeon General to CNN's Sanjay Gupta, it's only to be expected that some equally surprising political appointments would get bandied about. Here's another one you can add to the list: Rumor has it that Obama is thinking about naming Anna Wintour as his ambassador to England or France, at least according to the "extremely insider rumors" picked up by Fashion Week Daily. Excellent choice! Not only will it go a long way to restoring America's reputation on the European continent, it will functions as the perfect exit strategy for Anna as Vogue continues its downward descent!

Barack Obama had to have lunch with a bunch of boring old white guys today. Was it a round-table discussion on the future of the media? No, it was the presidents' lunch.

• Not surprisingly, nearly every major network is planning "longer and more exhaustive" coverage of the inauguration compared to years past. [NYT]
• Ugly day at Time Warner: The company is reporting its annual first loss in six years and is writing down $25 billion in the fourth quarter. [BN]
• Is Dick Parsons in line to become Commerce Secretary? [B&C]
• Forbes laid off 19 people yesterday. [ATD]
• People's Jess Cagle is taking over as managing editor of EW. [NYP]
• Michael Hirschorn thinks it's possible the New York Times will go bust in the next year; the Observer says Times boss Arthur Sulzberger Jr. is the "media mensch of the year." Go figure! [Atlantic, NYO]
• Lloyd Grove's 4,100-word article on Sumner Redstone is online. [Portfolio]
• If a cable news doctor can be Surgeon General, we probably shouldn't be surprised to see that Joe the Plumber is now a war correspondent. [NYP]

Thick-necked celebrity son Luke Russert is having an Inauguration Eve party! For that black guy who won! Would you like to go? Here is the invitation.

We finally learned who Bush booked in the Blair House instead of letting the Obamas stay there. And—surprise!—it's a major-league asshole.

Our tipster said it's more heartwarming than the puppy cam , this, the best headline yet in 2009: "Bush starts packing to leave White House." It's true, he can't wait to leave.

Barack Obama has offered the job of Surgeon General to CNN's Sanjay Gupta, and he may accept the position in the next few days, "according to people familiar with the situation at the television network and in the Obama transition." As far as we know, Dr. Drew Pinsky has not yet been tapped to serve as drug czar, but the position is still open, so here's hoping! [NYT]

In 2001, Barack Obama taped an episode of public TV restaurant-review show "Check Please." He admitted to pigging out on Johnny cakes, adorably, but then hogged the roundtable discussion. Arrogant.

This is it! January 5, 2009: the beginning of the Obama presidency. He is on TV fixing the economy, making tough decisions, being presidential, and the inauguration is just a formality now.

Oh no! Another Clintonite will ruin Barack Obama's change forever! Clinton Chief-of-Staff Leon Panetta will be your new CIA director.