Few things plague a new president like that gap between what we come to expect of a new president and what he is able to deliver. The aura and anticipation surrounding a president-to-be typically diminish quickly once the glow of the inauguration itself dissipates. Barack Obama faces particularly stiff winds, which are likely to disperse that glimmer even faster than usual.
In this piece from tomorrow's New York TImes Magazine, Matt Bai provides us with a fine anemometer to register the force of the prevailing winds. Here's a taste of the great writing in this article:
[T]he transition is also very much about this process of forestalling
reality, perpetuating the notion of the outsider who has arrived with
pick and chisel to breach the ancient crypt of Washington and release
its musty air. It is an interregnum of suspended hopefulness, the
period after the outsider has asserted his dominance over the system
but before he has had the opportunity to become identified with it. His
power lies in being perceived, for as long as possible, as a
transitional figure, a reformer among insiders; once the transition
ends, so, fairly or not, does his lack of accountability for chaotic
situations and intractable bureaucracy.
It's well worth reading in it's entirety.