Obama pins, bumper stickers, and posters. Obama shirts “Yes We Can!” and “Time for Change.” Obama mugs, Obama books, and Obama name-it-and-we’ll-put-his-face-on-it anything.

With the presidential inauguration, the Obama hype seems to be at its peak. People are buzzing with excitement, waiting for the President-elect to shed the “elect” part of his title. A proof of this excitement is that there are no hotels available within a multiple-hour radius of Washington D.C. People are capital-bound to witness Barack Obama being sworn into office.

As for others who have not been caught up in the Obama-fever, a question presents itself: What are people so excited about? It is undeniable that history is about to be made, and the achievement of having an African American president in office is monumental. But why is the face of the President-elect ubiquitous now? It is as though Obama has become America’s new superhero, with a stars and stripes cape swirling around him.

All the publicity and anticipation built up around Obama will have both good and bad effects on his upcoming presidency. On the good side, Obama supporters are bursting with zeal and patriotism. They are counting down the hours and minutes until he takes office. On the not so good side, like with all new presidencies, a lot is expected of Obama, and there are countless problems to solve. Some Americans are seeing the Obama presidency as the beginning of a new age, where Bush is finally gone and Obama will lead us into a recovery from Bush’s controversial two terms.

The fact of the matter is that Obama will have to make controversial decisions, like Bush did, and will have to resolve problems of massive proportions, which Bush also did.

Obama plans to bring us out of the economic disaster, settle the Russia/Georgia fiasco, and evacuate our troops from Iraq, among scores of other problems. Similar to Bush’s presidency, there are innumerable ways to slip up during this crucial time, therefore creating the risk of getting a less than appreciable public approval rating. Bush started out his presidency smoothly, but then disasters like 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina hit, and his decisions were criticized all around. With all of this glorification of Obama, will he have nowhere to go but down once he starts digging into the country’s dilemmas?

I believe that while it may seem like Obama is a godsend for many Americans, there is also a real possibility that he will not be able to live up to what is expected of him. Perhaps we should step back a bit and take a look from a more realistic perspective. We must expect that there will be mistakes made, and that we may end up disappointed. Keeping this in mind, go ahead and put on your Obama shirt and your Obama pins, and snag a good seat during the 5th block presentation of the 2009 United States Presidential Inauguration.