What will President-elect Barack Obama do once in office? What can he realistically do?

From the nation's economic crisis and its bloated budget deficit to the crises in health care and foreign policy, four Cornell professors agreed on the day after the election that Obama's reform agenda faces daunting challenges. The problems also include working with wounded Republicans, frustrations from the inherent complexities of the nation's woes and the glacial pace of Congress.

Taking part in a panel discussion Nov. 5 in Goldwin Smith Hall, Joel Silbey, the President White Professor of History Emeritus, characterized Democrats as traditionally policy- and legislation-oriented and noted Obama's reference to the "long road to change" in his Grant Park address to supporters in Chicago the night of his historic victory.

"He's right," said Silbey, noting that moderate Republicans John Warner, Pete Domenici and John Sununu are leaving the U.S. Senate. "There are very few Republican senators now [in the Senate] who have made any career of being flexible when it comes to dealing with the people across the aisles. What will happen therefore is, I suspect, a certain amount of confrontation and anger and difficulties for the Democratic leaders in the Senate."

M. Elizabeth Sanders, professor of government who teaches a course on the U.S. presidency, said that at first it seemed that Obama might be a "pre-emptive president." "If you looked at the campaign in early 2008, he was vague and ambiguous but he didn't seem very liberal, he didn't talk about Democratic policies. He talked about very little in terms of specifics at all. He had some very conservative advisers."

One of Sanders' students suggested Obama might be a "realigning" president, bent on repudiating the old regime. As the financial crisis worsened, Sanders began to wonder if a political sea change in American political history -- such as those in 1896, 1932 and 1980 -- was at hand. It could be Obama's moment to discredit deregulation, militarism and tax cutting as failures, she said.

"What I think Obama will try to do now is something that looks more like a new version of the New Deal," said Sanders. "There will be put in place again rules for the regulation of economic processes."

Richard Booth, professor of city and regional planning, said that he suspected Obama "will govern more from the center than from a more leftist position. I say that because the country is deeply divided. And I say that because I think the great lesson of American politics is that unless the middle moves, not much happens."

Booth predicted the new government would quickly devise a large stimulus package; he suggested that investment in infrastructure for public water, sewers, bridges, schools and public transportation could create jobs. Other Booth predictions: Obama will be "less precipitous" on withdrawal from Iraq than he indicated in his campaign; the Obama government will reauthorize the Endangered Species Act and strengthen the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act; and the new administration will be "spending a good deal of time in the next four years undoing some of the regulations adopted by President Bush's administration."

Because Obama ran on the idea of change, expectations are very high, Booth said, and Obama therefore needs to score a big early success. "Whatever change he proposes, a good number of people are going to stand up and say, 'Stop! That's not the change that I voted for,'" he said. "I think we have a capable person facing immense responsibilities, and once you run for president, the big issues become yours."

Ted Lowi, the John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions, called Obama "truly charismatic." But, he warned, "charisma is a dangerous virtue."

Said Lowi: "Obama has it, but he will have to set it aside in order to maintain control of his loosely jointed national coalition. If he is to succeed, he has to hit hard and hope. I'm optimistic because he seems to have another virtue: patience."