2009 will be a year of challenges: the economic downturn and the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the most obvious. There are also political challenges for both American parties.
Already, Obama is feeling the media strain. Politico reports that he has attempted to escape the media 'bubble'.
Then there are the air strikes by Israel. How will that alter the Obama administration's plans for tackling the Middle East?
But as Obama struggles with all that and more, he is also faced with a challenge that he has set himself: the transformation of how America does its politics.
Obama has certainly gone out of his way to build an administration of rivals. But once the day-to-day political operations begin can he continue to govern as he intended and set out during all those stump speeches? His clear message then was that he wished to represent all of America: his referencing of Lincoln could be interpreted as a sign that he was going to move his own party closer to the Republican party that Lincoln once led, thus making it far harder for the present-day Republicans to move to the centre ground.
I have argued in my blog that Obama has the characteristics of a British liberal as opposed to a social democrat. Lincoln's Republican party was in the mould of a British liberal party: committed to a free market, individual freedom and a state that does intervene when necessary. It is no coincidence that the father of modern liberalism, John Stuart Mill, supported Lincoln and the north in the American civil war.
Where then does this leave the Republicans?
Clearly, they have to decide how to respond to Obama. But this is easier said than done. And the latest embarrassment isn't going to help them.
Will they move more to the right as the British Conservative party did after the 1997 election defeat and condemn themselves to opposition for a decade? Or will they attempt to edge to the centre? Even if they do that, there is no guarantee of electoral success. After all, why vote for a centre party when you already have one in office getting on with the job?
The other option for the Republicans, and the most interesting, is for them to take a long hard look at what they are about, what America is about and begin to develop policies that address the big issues: the environment, the economy, scientific progress from their own perspective but not from a position of denial. So no more 'drill baby drill' but accepting that things are changing and working out how to provide solutions from their perspective.
If Obama can begin to right the economy, restore America's standing in the world, address the problems of environmental havoc and help change the Republican party then when he leaves office he will have a substantial legacy. Even achieving one of those things will be quite something.