For the Record: Trump and the GOP start hitting the 'undo' button

Who would have won a head-to-head matchup: Donald Trump or Barack Obama? The whole debate always had a Batman-vs.-Darth Vader vibe to it — no amount of arguing on Facebook could ever make the showdown a reality. Still, Morning Consult and Politico pitted Obama's net favorability of +15.3 against Trump's -4.5. The result: Trump wins, 45% to 44%. If there's one lesson, it's this: "The electorate loves bad boys."

Or maybe it's "try new things." 
Or "nice guys finish last." 
Or "it's better to be feared than loved."

Back in the real world, Trump's gonna be president unless Congress forgets how to count numbers tomorrow. We'll still get our Trump-Obama face-off, sorta ... the fight over the Affordable Care Act repeal is just Round One.

GOP prepares to go CTRL-X on Obamacare, but has nothing to CTRL-V in its place yet

Six years ago today, House Republicans launched their first effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. To their credit, they probably didn't expect President Obama to sign a bill wiping out his signature legislative achievement. But now, Republicans now have all the pieces in place — the House, the Senate and the Oval Office — to repeal and replace Obamacare.

As for what the new plan will look like, we don't know. House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters, “We have plenty of ideas to replace it," then threw a smoke bomb and fled when asked for details on the new system. Coming up with a plan that keeps the popular stuff and gets rid of the unpopular stuff will be a huge challenge. For example, one of the most universally popular portions of the bill requires insurance companies to cover pre-existing health conditions; one of the GOP's least favorite portions requires individuals to buy health insurance. But having one without the other would be like forcing insurance companies to issue fire insurance to people whose homes are currently burning to the ground.

Replacing the Affordable Care Act will take time. But after years of promising voters that they would end the program, Republicans are getting started immediately with the "repeal" part. Still, not everyone is on board: Sen. Rand Paul took the opportunity to vote against repealing the program, saying the federal debt should be a far more significant concern for the GOP.

Trump takes on the FBI, CIA, and all the mind-controlling aliens they have at their disposal

If Republicans vs. Obamacare is the main event, Trump vs. U.S. intelligence is surely the undercard. In one corner: Trump, Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, who say the hacked DNC emails didn't come from the Russian government. And in the other corner: the Obama administration, the FBI, the CIA ... and a few key Republicans, including Paul Ryan and Sen. Tom Cotton.

In a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt, Ryan called Assange "a sycophant for Russia" who "steals data and compromises national security." Cotton told MSNBC, "I have a lot more faith in our intelligence officers" than in "people like Julian Assange."

Taking on a lame-duck presidential administration is one thing. Taking on the American spy network? That's upping the difficulty setting to "high."

"Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday of getting back at you," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "So even for a practical supposedly hard-nosed businessman, he's being really dumb to do this.”

Trump is due to receive a briefing laying out the intelligence agencies' evidence on Friday.

Would you like to save your progress? (yes/no)

Two months ago, Obama was pretty sure he'd get to spend his post-presidential life being the wacky neighbor at 1602 Pennsylvania Avenue, occasionally peeking over the fence and offering life advice to Hillary. But now, for lack of another prominent Democrat to take on the role, his post-presidential life will be spent defending progressive ideals and helping to foster the next generation of party leaders.

"With respect to my priorities when I leave, it is to build that next generation of leadership; organizers, journalists, politicians. I see them in America, I see them around the world, 20-year-olds, 30-year-olds who are just full of talent, full of idealism," Obama said in an interview last month with David Axelrod. "And the question is how do we link them up? How do we give them the tools for them to bring about progressive change? And I want to use my presidential center as a mechanism for developing that next generation of talent."

Anyway, remember last January when everyone thought Clinton would wind up nominating Obama to the Supreme Court? Ah, memories.

More from the USA TODAY Network

• Chicago man tortured, taunted about Donald Trump (USA TODAY)
• Survey finds Congress more Christian than the rest of America (USA TODAY OnPolitics)
• Kasich wouldn't attend Trump's GOP nomination in his own state, but squeezes in a trip to the inauguration (Cincinnati Enquirer)
• The Clintons will be there, too (USA TODAY OnPolitics)
• Sen. Chuck Schumer isn't looking forward to the the first all-tweet State of the Union (USA TODAY OnPolitics)
• The Office of Congressional Ethics might still be gutted, but in a nonpartisan way (USA TODAY OnPolitics)
• Speaking of, the Office of Congressional Ethics thinks Duncan Hunter spent $600 in campaign funds to fly a pet rabbit across the country. For $600, he could have bought a few dozen brand-new rabbits wherever he was flying to (USA TODAY OnPolitics)
• Allied Progress wants Sen. Jeff Flake to oppose Trump's Treasury pick, and they're spending six figures to get the message across. Oh man, do you know how many rabbits you could fly across the country for that kind of dough? (Arizona Republic)

'Are you going to sneeze?'

We didn't think dabbing was still a thing anymore. But then the teenage son of a Kansas congressman did it in a photo with Paul Ryan, which confirmed that no, it definitely is no longer a thing.