At first glance it looks like Barack Obama’s sitting on top of the world, but this poor fellow’s actually sitting on a dozen time bombs.

Running the American Empire these days is first cousin to being assigned hazardous duty in the bomb squad. The war we were winning, Afghanistan, is going downhill – so the Democrats are about to launch their own version of a surge. Pulling out of Iraq sounds fine but, well, when was the last time anyone pulled out of a war without leaving a mess behind? The economy has a series of virulent diseases – and no one knows the cure. And if we find a cure it looks like – since Free Trade has turned out to be a Trojan Horse – we’ll be right back to buying from the Chinese then borrowing from them to buy more.

Compare Obama’s dilemma the morning he takes office to Bill Clinton and George Bush and you almost have to pity the poor fellow. The champion of the middle class, who was going to tax the rich, is actually bailing out Wall Street bankers and automakers with middle class tax money which probably wasn’t what he had in mind at all.

It’s inauguration time and everyone’s having a grand ole time singing “Cumbayah” on the Lincoln Memorial steps. But America isn’t Disneyland. And let’s hope Barack Obama doesn’t turn out to be the Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

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