Is it possible the right wing was lying when they tried to scare everybody into believing Barack Obama was a liberal? Yes, and yes. What's more provoking, though, are the lengths the right wing is going to paint Obama's overwhelming progressive victory as a victory for conservatism.

Fred Barnes writes in the Weekly Standard that in picking his cabinet Obama has looked to the right. Since when has Hillary been to the right of anybody? Nor is it even fathomable to think that Hillary is right of center in the Democratic Party. How possibly can someone who is pro-choice, pro-universal health care, pro-alternative energy and pro-stem cell research be considered right of center? They can't. But Fred Barnes and his make-believe world believe it true.

All of Obama's cabinet picks are progressive and all are absolutely to the left of George Bush and his outgoing administration. There is not an ounce of truth in any statement declaring Obama's cabinet to be right of center.

The best part about Barnes' op-ed is the length he goes to paint the financial crisis and tumbling Dow on Obama. Having been president-elect for a total of three days on Nov. 7th at his first press conference, the very Serious and Patriotic Fred Barnes declares:

"...financial markets don't look at Washington that way. They focus on the future, and that means Obama. Financial markets demanded at least some comforting hints about Obama's plans for reversing the economic downturn.

Reluctantly, Obama has begun to provide them. But it took a 900-point dip in the stock market, plus persistent pleas, for Obama to act. After two days of market collapse, his aides spread the word that Obama's choice for secretary of the Treasury would be Timothy Geithner, the head of the Federal Reserve in New York."

Can you even be serious? Fred Barnes is by all accounts the dumbest person in America. The President, George W. Bush, has done absolutely nothing-- absolutely nothing--- to calm the markets, unless you want to consider nationalization of business as a plan to stabilize a capitalistic country. Not one word though about Bush's handling of the economy, not one word about Bush being responsible for the very country he is president of; it's all Obama's fault. Newsflash to Barnes, it's not the job of the president-elect to stabilize markets. That is the job of the President, in this case the greatest president ever, George W. Bush.

This is the Republican Party, it's past present and future. To them Hillary Clinton as SoS is proof of a conservative victory and a right of center government. To them the most progressive agenda elected to office since 1932 is a victory for conservatism. These are the people who think only "good," "decent," "reasonable," and "patriotic" people are those who actually believe anything Fred Barnes or Rush Limbaugh says. This is one of the craziest things I've ever heard. There really is no reason to try and calculate how and why the GOP crumbled, just read this article. It says all we need to know.