Reading this is like watching an unassisted triple play in baseball. You see it, you pause to make sure you’ve seen what you think you’ve seen, and then you marvel at the sheer odds of it having happened. Would a big name at a big magazine like Mark Halperin really sign off on something so absurd, and so fawning in its absurdity, as to be instantly destined for infamy in the blogosphere? Of course not. The odds against it are a million to one. And yet.

This is a magic moment, my friends.

Instantly comfortable and highly skilled at the hardest job in the world — proving his supporters’ contention that all the traits that made him a great candidate would serve him well in the White House: even temper, cool demeanor, boldness under pressure, shrewd facility for managing personnel, unfailing instincts about when to delegate and when to engage.

There are only two more sentences after that but I can’t go on. And a good thing too: Tom Maguire and Ace got to this first and used up all the best one-liners. Follow the links for a few of the many, many reasons why a guy might not deserve an A- if his major accomplishment to date is passing a gigantic stimulus bill that was designed to cap unemployment at, um, eight percent. Exit quotation from Maguire: “I shudder to think what a B+ would have looked like.”

Update: In a sweet stroke of irony, Time was also the magazine that reported earlier today on how unhappy the White House is with its press coverage. Anyone want to make a prediction about how Halperin will backtrack from this tomorrow? I’d say it’s 50/50 between a humiliating climbdown on tomorrow’s “Morning Joe” and a sheepish “upon further review” featurette published on Time.com. Internet-only for that, of course.

Update: Perspective from the Freepers.

Update: I don’t how or why Halperin’s piece started circulating on blogs yesterday but it looks like the grade was actually part of Time’s “First 100 Days” package. I was fooled by the date on the upper right, which I thought was the date of publication but actually turns out to be today’s date. No idea why he would have earned an A- by May either, but it was more defensible at the time than it was before the long slide towards 10 percent unemployment and the ObamaCare meltdown. Sorry for the error.