Obama is here. Everything will be fine tomorrow.

President Obama was inaugurated yesterday, and I watched his speech. It was interesting to compare it to the campaign speeches he gave earlier. He really dialed back the rhetoric and told people how it was: things suck right now, they are going to suck for a long time, but eventually, with hard work, we can make things better. Good message, but certainly different from what we heard before.

I think it will be interesting to see how the public's perception of Obama changes over the next 6 months -- I predict his approval rating drops 20%. Current favorable/unfavorable polls show (from RCP):

RCP Average: 73% Favorable -- 14.8% Unfavorable
ABC News/Wash Post: 79% Favorable -- 18% Unfavorable
CBS News/NY Times: 60% Favorable -- 9% Unfavorable
Fox News: 76% Favorable -- 15% Unfavorable
NBC News/WSJ: 66% Favorable -- 14% Unfavorable
USA Today/Gallup: 78% Favorable -- 18% Unfavorable
Pew: 79% Favorable -- 15% Unfavorable

I'm not trying to put down Obama -- I think he'll be a good president (although given my expectations of a president, that may not be saying much). I just don't think that the president really has any power to effect true change. People's expectations are sky high right now, and unfortunately many of them expect that change to come in the next few weeks.