What it looks like today

So the new President has finally arrived! As a contact from Argentina in another cyber world called him "Mr. Hope". That seems like a huge burden. I donated to his campaign. A first in my life. I wanted him to win almost as much as I wanted W to loose in '04.
The President is the CEO of America. As such he issues broad policy direction to the executive branch. If he is a good CEO with competent Department heads there will be changes in American policies.
He will have his biggest influence with budgeting those departments. Here he will have to compete with a Congress that seems to be full of ideologues on both the left and right. I will be surprised if he gets much cooperation in Congress. I think his work will be buried under Congressional buffoonery. I would not be surprised if in 2010 the Republicans make huge gains. Near majority in both houses.
Obama does not seem to have the nasty streak that it takes to reign in an undisciplined Congress. Every minute that he allows Congress to dither is a lost opportunity.
He'll cut back the Military presence in Iraq. Build up the Afghanistan forces and watch as things continue to fall apart in both countries.
Policies effecting the economy can have very few effects. The best effect is not screwing things up any more than they are. The alternative is adding to the problem and further screwing things up. A trillion here or there may help stabilize things. But it is my suspicion that most of that money is going to the wrong places and there are a lot of very powerful people who would not mind if Obama failed. They happen to be in places that will only be marginally effected if things continue to get worse. Certainly the entire Republican party is in that place.