As giddy with anticipation as a schoolgirl, NPR reports that a record 5 million people will attend Barack Obama’s inauguration this month.

Ever the inquisitive columnist, I have examined these claims, determined that NPR might be right on this one, and got a nice tote bag from them for my efforts. Worry not about the impact on the economy; even with four or five million Obama supporters in Washington for the inaugural festivities, only 28 of them will be missing work.

NPR, as we all know, is National Public Radio, which will be in an enviable position once the Democrats in Congress silence the free market of ideas which is talk radio. NPR is the monotoned talking points of the left, subsidized with our tax dollars and pressurized pledge drives which seem to take place 365 days a year. If you are wondering what Congress would like your news and information stream to be like in the future, look no further than Castro’s state-owned paper that talks about him in every issue, or Oprah’s O Magazine, dedicated to her and to her struggles with her weight.

Please do not misinterpret my view of Obama. I am pulling for him and, I must say, so far so good. He has an easy act to follow in George W. Bush, who solidified his position with me as perhaps our worst president when he ignored the will of the country and Congress in giving Detroit all that bailout money (better known as “rearranging the deck chairs on Titanic”). Bush, with help from Cheney, has tried to establish an imperial presidency. In doing so, he has always found the desires of Congress and the American people to be quaint and amusing. But W feels he knows best. That would be fine, if he had been right more often.

As a result of bad choices and the betrayal of fundamental principles, W’s approval ratings are the lowest of any modern president. The only thing Bush is still above is the law.

Except for lowering taxes and appointing two good Supreme Court Justices in Roberts and Alito, Bush has been big government disaster. He was the “Outside the Beltway” Texas governor who was going to cut spending and bring Washington under control; instead, he oversaw the biggest expansion of government in modern times. And the most tragic effect of the Bush legacy is that he has set the conservative/libertarian ideology back 20 years. He did so by not being a conservative or a libertarian.

Now all that is left for him is to pardon a few folks and try to burnish his legacy. To date he has pardoned fewer felons than his predecessors. My guess is that even criminals don’t want a pardon from W because they don’t want to be too closely associated with him.

In retirement, I trust George will begin reading all those security briefing memos that he never got around to, and perhaps he can read a book about why Iraqi Sunnis will never get along with Shiites. Now would be a good time to understand that, before he wasted a trillion dollars and our worldwide reputation on invading there, he should have had at least a nodding acquaintance with the situation.

Bush might as well bet the hard eight and intercede in the latest Mideast mess again. What with presiding over not finding bin Laden, a real estate meltdown, never vetoing a pork barrel spending bill, meddling in Iraq, blurring the church and state separation, fighting Islamic religious fanatics by each day asking his God what to do, nationalizing businesses, and leaving us with $3 trillion more in debt and a flat stock market for eight years, Bush can now rest on his laurels.

The White House has been called on to answer for the Iraq War, which has been called the worst foreign policy blunder in history. That seems to me to be unfair and premature; Bush still has two more weeks in office.