Remaking America

A transformational presidency begins at a transformational moment | Edward Lee Pitts

Associated Press/Photo by Susan Walsh

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Among the rumble of cheers lifting off the National Mall as 2 million Americans celebrated firsthand last month's inauguration were small singular voices: "Today we are the special ones." "This is our time."

With Democrats in charge of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue for the first time since 1994, transformation of government by the party of Jackson and Roosevelt begins at the top but is sure to reach into the inner workings of every government agency. Just how will the Obama administration govern an America that Obama himself describes as full of "gathering clouds and raging storms"?

As the first African-Americans to occupy the White House, Obama along with his wife Michelle are sure to bring to the capital a new iconography. But hope and anticipation must make way for the pedestrian challenges of policymaking. Now the hard part begins.