Obama’s inauguration speech certainly set a high bar. Can his Administration live up to it? Or the expectations of Obama’s supporters? President Obama himself has been careful not to promise the moon, but rather emphasized that the job ahead is a shared responsibility and will not be an easy road. Still, there is alwas the danger of expectations feeding on themselves, irrespective of the reality of Obama’s actions or rhetorical restraint.

There are a couple of good articles out there that go into the reasons why expectations shoudl be kept in check. First, seven reasons for healthy skepticism about what Obama can reasonably achieve in the context of the Washington establishment, and political and economic realities. Second, a piece asking what we still don’t know, in terms of the big picture. These articles serve as a good laundry list of major issues that Obama will need to confront head-on as he crafts his policy agenda and tries to get things done.

There are of course Republican sore losers who are more interested in seeing Obama fail than in seeing our nation succeed. But the simple truth is that the deck is stacked against Obama’s Administration, so at some level Obama is bound to fail. The question is simply, how much failure can we bear? The next eight years are not going to be easy ones.