Via the Daily Caller, a surreal riposte to last night’s bipartisan disappointment in Hopenchange. Before I watched this clip I would have guessed there’s not a single pundit left, liberal or conservative, who wouldn’t eagerly agree with the premise of Kurtz’s question. Why, just today, the same paper that employs Friedman is running a piece wondering whether President Hillary might not have done better. But no: There is one guy for whom the jury’s still out despite chronically high unemployment, an economy on the verge of a double dip, and spiraling debt driven by Obama’s own broken promises. Turns out we’re just one major deal on deficit reduction away from vindicating the lunatic messianism of the media’s 2008 campaign coverage. (Never mind that that deal might well have happened already had not Obama upped his demands at the last minute.) Redeeming ridiculous press adulation and sending the Dow soaring 1,200 points in a day: Is there anything a Tom Friedman fantasy “grand bargain” can’t do?

The left used to goof on him for predicting, no less than 14 different times over a span of two and a half years, that the ultimate outcome in Iraq would be determined by what happens there in the next six months. That became known, mockingly, as a “Friedman Unit.” I wonder what the Friedman Unit will be for assessing whether The One maybe sorta hasn’t lived up to the promise of his candidacy. Six months? A year? A full term? I’m going to go out on a limb and guess “two terms.”