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Naturally, anybody will look good next to Bush; however, he'll also be hindered by the need to clean up the colossal mess Bush leaves behind. While Obama's mere election brought an immediate wave of hope both home and abroad, the world economy has only continued to plummet since his election, the war in Iraq continues, and a new headache has popped up in Gaza. Good as the dude may turn out to be at his job, Obama's got a tough road to hoe; his standard of success will be merely pulling the world out of its tailspin.

I expect him to try his best. That's all; the guy can't snap his fingers and fix all of these issues.

I really hope he can pass universal health care soon.

Lazar wrote:I really hope he can pass universal health care soon.

<standing before Conehead highmaster> "The United States cannot solve the health care problems of the Universe."

Anti-Bush.

I'm just leery of politicians, left or right, period.

I expect him to spend the next 4 years getting us back to where we were 8 years ago, then I expect him to spend the next 4 years trying to move the US towards energy independence and sustainabilty while lessening the wealth gap.

I expect him to get assassinated as soon as he announces that he is eliminating DADT.

I expect him to spend most of his four years undoing all the problems Bush called. Fixing the economy, getting the country back on track, fixing the US's international image (though the simple fact that Obama is going to be in power will automaticaly boost the European peoples' opinions of the US), scrapping PATRIOT, and all that other crap.
If there's any time left, or he's elected a second time, he may have time to get the US to actualy take a few steps forwards.

I'm trying to limit my expectations, because it's all to easy to want to expect him to fix everything all at once - which of course can't happen. I would like to avoid a true universal healthcare, although I wouldn't mind a regulated healtcare system. What I'd like to see first is a set foreign policy - any way he goes, I want the US to have the same policy, no matter to which foreign situation it applies. Bush foreign policy is more haphazard in its application than the TNG Prime Directive.

I don't expect much in the way of radical policy changes to be honest. He has made a big deal out of bringing both sides together and being centrist, so I expect a moderation of the previous extremism but nothing radical like declaring a UHC system. Ironically, in various corners of the net his supporters are crying for him to take the power Bush took for the office and use it himself. Essentially ruling by fiat. Almost had an irony overload.

Captain Picard's Hair wrote:Naturally, anybody will look good next to Bush; however, he'll also be hindered by the need to clean up the colossal mess Bush leaves behind. While Obama's mere election brought an immediate wave of hope both home and abroad, the world economy has only continued to plummet since his election, the war in Iraq continues, and a new headache has popped up in Gaza. Good as the dude may turn out to be at his job, Obama's got a tough road to hoe; his standard of success will be merely pulling the world out of its tailspin.

We were actually talking about this very thing at the lunch table yesterday. Expectations of this poor guy are so damned high, it was commonly agreed that if he can't part the red sea as well, he's gonna catch hell for it.

I do think he's done a fair job of reminding people to try not to expect Rome in a day.

Well the dems in Congress and the Senate are all ready going to be using the Congress review process to eliminate a lot of what Bush is doing. Ironic since Next brought it about to stop Clinton.

With the proviso that I'm a foreigner so I don't really have a right to expect anything of the guy, what I expect from Obama is :

End America's use of torture, as soon as practicable. No reason why this shouldn't happen the day he takes office, but certainly within a month or two.

Close the Guantanamo detention camp. More practical difficulties on this one - what to do with the people there - but I'd expect to see this happen within the first year.

All US troops out of Iraq, within 18 months to 2 years.

In the longer term, a serious effort on reducing oil dependency. Many new nuclear power plants, much more money for alternative energy.

I expect the economy to go badly for a year or two, maybe more, then improve again. By the end of his presidency I expect the economy to be either back up, or in the process of bouncing back up.

I think he will very likely win a second term.