When Obama let out his first soul-chilling hint: We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America on Oct. 30, 2008, few thought about what his actual modus operandi might be. The hint was issued by a rabble rouser who had arrived on the world stage with a carefully crafted rock star/messiah status; amid posters of Hope & Change distributed to the four corners of the world; the defiant boast coming on on the eve of Halloween to boot.