Johnson, taking over a nation roiling in the Civil Rights movement. Could’ve lost the nation real easily then.
Truman, taking over WWII in mid-stream.
Roosevelt, facing an economic crisis far worse than our own and set up by bumbling economic direction post-Reconstruction.
Johnson, after Lincoln was assassinated.
Lincoln, taking over a country literally about to rip itself apart.

Sure, Obama gets the war thing and the economy thing and the we-let-the-VP-shit-on-the-Constitution thing, but those problems can all be met. Of that I’m confident.

I agree with you that each president has to pick up the thread from his predecessor. However, since when has an incoming president ever faced the sheer number of overwhelming issues that President Obama has.

I believe wholeheartedly in President Obama…I voted for him. It will take a person of extreme character and substance to lead us through these troubled times. He will be faced with monumental decisions on a day to day basis…and he does realize that “big government” is going to have to take over for a while.

I am a lifelong democrat…and I always will be. However, there are times when you must balance idealogical philosophy against the needs of the country…and this is one of them.

If Obama has promise—and I certainly believe that he does—it is that he is not only a skilled leader and orator, but that he brings those skills to the table precisely at the point at which we greatly need them in this country. He will make mistakes, as we all do. He can do much to change this country—but we have a responsibility to make a change in our communities. After all, no one elected any of the folks who made the most positive changes in the civil rights movement that made yesterday possible: they were citizens like the rest of us, imbued with a duty and responsibility to make their community and country into a better place. The elected folks in that era largely resisted the changes being made. Those who did make changes from elected office merely marshaled forces already present.

Change begins at home.

The office of the President of the United States is merely an elected official. Previous to this election the voice of America was that we were not ready to accept a non-white man into the office.

This election cycle broke most of the established rules in that both candidates for the Democratic Party were not white men. Democrats chose between a woman and a black man.

Brian…I have to disagree with you a bit. President Obama is faced with challenges that no president in our lifetimes has been faced with. He is dealing simultaneously with a crumbling banking infrastructure, two seperate unpopular military actions, rising jobless claims, freefalling educational standards, the erosion of faith in the system as a whole and most importantly a systemic failure of the Government as a whole to actually watch out for the best interests of the public.

President Obama will need nothing short of a miracle to survive the pitfalls that are awaiting him over the next 4 years and it will take a revisionist attitude on both Capitol Hill and in the White House to undo the events of the last 8 years.

People may not want “big government” but in order to ensure that the United States that we leave our children is as good or better than the one that we inherited it is going to take exactly that.

I wish President Obama, Vice-President Biden, and the rest of the Obama administration nothing but the absolute best. I hope that the Democratic Senate will support his programs while at the same time stay strong in opposition if they feel that he has gone a step too far. I pray that the House will work in bipartisanship to enact needed legislation before it is too late. And most importantly…I hope the media and other world leaders give President Obama the time he needs to get started before they begin passing judgement on his Presidency.