George W. Bush and his "Economic Report of the President" (published 02/09/2004). I know it's early for handing out awards, but what could top this?

First, the report promised a golden future of 2.6 million jobs this year, then delivered a quick soft-shoe shuffle and a fast-paced song-and-dance ["Sending Jobs Overseas Helps The U.S." 02/10/2004].

Then, in that same report, we found a hint of the President's solution for the sinking manufacturing jobs numbers: just classify burger baggersas manufacturing workers [CBS BuildingBlue-Collar ... Burgers? 02/20/2004].

The follow-up is a third Chapter that has to be seen to be believed (or not, depending on your Credulity Quotient). I'll let Business Week tellthe tale:

Inventing The "Clinton Recession"

No one should be surprised when economic or budget forecasts coming out of Washington are influenced by politics, especially during an election year. But when economic history is rewritten — with political consequences -- that's going too far.

President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, chaired by Harvard economist N. Gregory Mankiw [him again], is trying to get away with exactly such revisionist history. The CEA's Economic Report of the President, released Feb. 9, unilaterally changed the start date of the last recession to benefit Bush's reelection bid. Instead of using the accepted start date of March, 2001, the CEA announced that the recession really started in the fourth quarter of 2000 — a shift that would make it much more credible for the Bush Administration to term it the "Clinton Recession."

For almost 75 years, the start and end dates of recessions have been set by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a private nonpartisan research group based in Cambridge, Mass. The NBER's decisions have been dragged into the political arena before, but without impact. In the early 1980s, the Reagan Administration tried, unsuccessfully, to convince the NBER to combine the 1980 and 1981-82 recessions into a single downturn that could be called the "Carter Recession."

Economists who go to Washington always struggle to maintain their objectivity against the political demands of the administration they work for. Based on its latest performance, the CEA seems to have lost the battle. [Business Week 02/23/2004 subscription]

For this administration, it appears that truth is stranger than fiction. Congratulations on the well-deserved award, Mr. President.