Ruth Marcus has it exactly right: “Obama’s ability to resist, and to dispense available goodies in an orderly fashion, will be key to the success of his presidency.” Will he fill up the van with special interest goodies for all of the Demcoratic interest groups which delivered his win and risk a repeat of 1994? Will he really raise taxes in a recession? Does he intend to make good on Barney Frank’s promise to slash the defense budget?

We have no idea because he has never governed, never legislated “from the center,” and never really been grilled as to his intentions. But we can hope that he is smart and canny enough to dispense with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid as ruthlessly as he did with Reverend Wright, his mentor of two decades. We can hope he simply strung along the good people of Ohio and has no intention of going down the protectionist road.

Yes, yes he ran as the New Politician. But let’s hope he’s enough of an Old Politician to realize he needn’t keep his campaign promises.