Obama has already started work on the economic crisis, one of several domestic challenges he will have to tackle.
Barack Obama will not take office for another two months but, as we have seen this week, he has already gotten to work on the economic crisis. But that is just one of the domestic challenges facing the president-Elect.
Making promises is what presidential candidates do.
But now with the election over those promises have triggered massive expectations about what an Obama administration can achieve, especially when it comes to important domestic issues forced to take a back seat to the economic crisis. Topping that list are: Health Care Reform, insuring children, lowering healthcare premiums and tackling Medicare.
"I am definitely excited. I want him to do some things. The question is balance," said Gerard Anderson, Ph.D. at John Hopkins University.
Anderson says he's still not sure how Obama plans to pay for his healthcare reforms and he worries Obama may have promised more than he can realistically deliver.
"How much can he afford to do on healthcare versus other domestic issues? How much is he willing to put into this," he asks.
While health care professionals are cautiously optimistic about an Obama administration, alternative energy supporters are almost giddy.
"This man believes to the depth of his soul that on his watch he has got to deal with global warming," said Charles Ebinger, Ph.D. and Director of the Energy Security Initiative.
Obama said he'd invest 15 billion dollars a year in renewable energy; create five million new energy jobs and put the US on track to be energy independent in 10 years.
"If his legacy were simply that he turned the path and got us on the right direction, I think 20-25 years from now he will go down as truly one of the great presidents of the United States," said Ebinger.
He's already got a head start building that legacy as the first African American president. Race wasn't part of the Obama platform but his election does raise expectations about healing the racial divide in this country.
"Barack Obama has a magic opportunity to peel away the plastic wall because that's all it is between blacks and whites in this country," said Democratic Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton of the District of Columbia.
There are unparalleled expectations and a lot of pressure. And, the world is watching.
