President Obama’s promise of change is not necessarily all for the good, however.  One key precept of the American tradition of the peaceful transition of power is the included tradition of granting the outgoing administration immunity against partisan persecution and retribution by the new holders of power.  If outgoing officials had to fear that those who disagreed with them would be empowered to put them in prison after they left power, the tradition of a peaceful transition of power would itself be endangered.  Yet, this is exactly the power sought by the most uncompromising haters of President Bush.  Heedless of the long-term consequences that such a precedent would set, far-left ideologues like Glenn Greenwald are demanding that President Obama criminalize policy differences by setting up show trials for the purpose of jailing as many former Bush administration officials as possible.  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has already signaled a willingness to give the far left their late Christmas present in this area as well.  If President Obama were to give in to such nutty obsessions, he would forfeit his claim to be the President serving all Americans and would become just another in the pantheon of “ends justify the means” partisans who already have degraded American politics to the level of schoolyard bullies.

There is also serious danger of overreaching on the economy and in foreign policy.  President Obama has made no secret of his desire to oversee dramatic changes in attempts to stem economic slide as well as in U.S. foreign policy.  Economically, President Obama is already at risk of seeing his nearly $1 trillion stimulus package hijacked by the same gamers like Rep. Barney Frank that created social policy mandates that caused the collapse in the housing market in the first place.   A stimulus package larded up with temporary make-work jobs and partisan policy gifts to Congressional Democrats will not only fail to stimulate the economy, it will expose as a fraud President Obama’s commitment to technocratic pragmatism.

In foreign policy, President Obama promises to close Guantanemo Bay, set a 16-month-timetable for removing U.S. troops from Iraq, shift forces to reinforce NATO efforts in Afghanistan, and craft a more integrated foreign policy approach for the entire crescent of conflict from Israel to South Asia.    Each of these measures carries risks in addition to their promise for change.  Closing Gitmo could dump hundreds of dangerous al-Qaeda terrorists on a civilian U.S. legal system that could release them to return to the battlefield on the basis of a raft of evidentiary technicalities.  Pulling U.S. forces out of Iraq on an arbitrary timetable could put Iraq’s fragile peace in danger if the Mehdi Army or al-Qaeda in Iraq were to reconstitute itself and exploit the weakened American position.  And an attempt for an integrated foreign policy could become lost in a swamp of abstract theorizing that embraces anti-American presumptions prevalent among the academic intellectual class that is overrepresented in President Obama’s foreign policy advisory circles.

The new Obama administration must face these risks and many more with a tempered sense of optimism.  Change is good, but achieving the right kind of change is hard.  The historic inauguration of America’s first black president is a cause for a day of celebration.  Tomorrow, the hard work begins in earnest.

UPDATE: The risks to Obama from his own far-left flank can be seen in their reaction to his inauguration.  Even in core of that historic moment, they are unable to fixate on anything except more Bush-bashing.