Time to deliver

With the inaugural address delivered, the oath of office taken, time starts now for Barack Hussein Obama, the 44th United States president, to deliver.

The unusual state of the economy may help mitigate unrealistic hopes on immediate changes, though change was what he promised, and change was what brought him to where he is.

At home and abroad, people are trying to figure out what would come first on his to-do list. The ailing economy is in dire need of fixing. But he can expect plenty of patience on that. Nobody anticipates an instant turnaround. But perhaps not on Iraq and Guantanamo.