Can Obama be a transformational presidency?

PRESIDENT-elect Barack Obama takes his oath of office next Tuesday in front of a world audience. He has to hit the ground running. His predecessor has left him a mess- not only in the financial, economic and foreign policy arenas but in a whole range of areas that are crying out for immediate attention and action.

His every move will be closely watched by the world, whose citizens-they may not have voted for him, nor could they have, even if they'd wanted to- have very high expectations of him. The Americans wanted change and voted in a president who is " a progressive Democrat who in character, style, personality and political vision is practically the observe of the current occupant of the White House".

Obama will be able to count on the patience of many Americans, but definitely for long, as he will be called upon to show results fairly quickly. With entrenched interests and resistance to change in both Washington and Wall Street, he will require "imaginative, decisive and bolder action than he has promised during the campaign"

But if he can raise above this, he will be a "transformative president", succeding in changing the US economy, society and democracy for a better and, hopefully, a more peaceful and safer world.

When vice-president-designate Joe Biden said "mark my words, it won't be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy", he was criticised. But the fact is that the incoming president is not being tested by the world but by his fellow American predecessor George W. Bush, as a result of the messy legacy that he is leaving behind.

The outgoing president leaves two wars( three if the invasion in Gaza is included) and an economic mess the like of which the world has not seen before and which "could linger years".

Then there are the questions of Afghanistan, Iraq, energy,healthcare,jobs, tax reform, homeland security, climate change, trade, foreign policy and "special relationships" and the adverse impact of the unilateral policy that Bush pursued with distratrous results.

Asia, particularly Southeast Asia, will also be watching to see if Obama will pay closer attention to them than Bush did in all his eight years in the White House. Obama's first trip to the region is likely to be later this year, when he attends the Apec meeting in Singapore.