I have said numerous times in political conversations with friends that I will give Barack Obama the benefit of the doubt and give him some space at the beginning of his administration. I realize that both sides of the political spectrum campaign to their fringe and for the most part govern towards the middle. Whether this is good or bad is up for debate and not the subject of this post. There is a laundry list of policies that he campaigned on, which I fundamentally disagree with, but as a realist, I know that very few of the items will come to fruition, even with a Democratically controlled congress (which will try to govern left of Obama). While its only the second week of a four year term, a one thing is perfectively clear, the Obama administration will be able to get away with anything without much objection from anyone. No one has called him out on the few policies he has proposed and enacted or that a few controversial cabinet nominees were passed with little questioning.

It feels like we are witnessing a “Teflon president” where nothing will stick to him. Look at this list:

*Reverend Wright

*Tony Resco

*Governor Blagojevich conversations

*The birth certificate issue- never releasing an original certificate from Hawaii

*Promising to take public campaign financing and then backing out

*Tim Geithner, his Treasury secretary who forgot to pay his taxes for years

*Secretary of State Hilary Clinton who was never grilled about the source of millions of dollars of donations to President Clinton foundations

*Not a lot of questioning about putting TRILLIONS of stimulus dollars with little oversight.

*What are we going to do with the prisoners of Guantanamo Bay when it closes, their home country wants nothing to do with them.

*Joe Biden stating that we should expect more military casualties because of an increased presence in Afghanistan.

*Campaigning against wasteful spending, wanting to spend trillions of dollars to stimulate the economy. He is doing this by putting money into banks, the auto industry and the states in a veiled attempt at socialism.

We all know that if anyone of these happen to a conservative president or candidate would be raked over the coals until the cows come home.

I believe that the Obama honeymoon will last throughout his four years and if the opposition doesn't get their act together a total of eight years. Of course its easy to say now with Obama's high approval rating after his decisive victory in November. He has mezorized a large majority of Americans, who believes tat he can't do no wrong. It's almost cult like. I haven't seen this kind of buzz for a public figure since Ronald Reagan. In Reagan's case he didn't touch the hearts of America until well into his first term, then it grew to what it is today. The only issue that could derail Obama's popularity is if the economy stays stagnant for a prolong period of time, like two or three years, which is definitely in the realm of possibility. We live in an impatient society and a large segment of the population would like to see their retirement to at least get to the point where it was at its peak last year asap. The stock market, if lucky might get back ½ of their loss from its peak in four years. I believe that if the market doesn't get back to the previous high in four years, Obama he might have a battle for re-election in 2012. To diffuse this, the administration and Democratic leaders has already stated that the economy will take a long time to recover and we should be patient. The administration is already trying to hedge their bets and covering their butts if the economy is not running at full steam in 2-3 years.

I guess time will tell when Obama will do or say something that will rub people the wrong way and will be called out. Who will do this, the mainstream media, his fellow Democrats, the Republican minority who was their own identity issues to deal with? The answer is no. The only people that has questioned Obama's actions throughout the campaign and into his Presidency is talk radio which Obama dismisses as not speaking for mainstream Americans. The only group that might stand up against Obama is the Democratically controlled congress if he doesn't govern as as left as they want, and that's a scary thought.