Many people assume, and liberals and the Obama administration hope, that because Democrats dominate both houses of Congress they can easily enact Obama's comprehensive agenda. It's not apparent that Obama understands he'll need to use a different set of skills to ensure his proposals become law than those he used to win the election. Even with a Democratic Congress they won't wiz through like the stimulus package.

Obama’s personal popularity remains high, but the more Americans learn about his proposals and the longer it takes him to stem the downturn in the economy, the more opposition to them will grow, and the more likely he'll fall short of achieving his goals.

The first thing people expected Obama to do when he took office was deal with the financial crisis. People who voted for him, especially moderates and independents, assumed he had a plan; however, no plan has yet emerged. Obama asserts the root of our economic woes is our failure to deal with the crises in health care, energy, and education, and he proposes unprecedented reform and spending in these areas. Meantime, the banking crisis only worsens.

In office now for seven weeks, the financial markets continue their nose dive in a vote of no confidence in Obama’s attempts to deal with the atrophied credit markets at the heart of the world economic downturn. The stock market has lost 20 percent of its value since Election Day, the worst performance for the market following the election of a new president in the 90 years they’ve been keeping records.

At the same time, Obama appears to be making mistakes that aren't helping his cause and that could ultimately cost him the game. Whether it’s the Super Bowl or the World Series, the team that loses, regardless of its advantages, is the one that makes the most mistakes. Every new US presidential administration has its missteps. In less harrowing times Americans overlook them. In times of great crisis, however, they are less forgiving. People are hurting and they expect the government to do something about it.

Nevertheless, Obama continues doing what he does best. He gives great speeches in carefully staged settings from behind his teleprompter while his administration attempts to form itself up and Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Congress do the heavy lifting, chanting Rahm Emaneul's dictum, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” But relief is nowhere in sight and the natives are getting restless.

Allowing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats to write the stimulus legislation instead of the White House only guaranteed that it was a shotgun blast rather than well aimed bullets. It passed with no Republican votes in the House and only three in the Senate; and it's a hodge-podge of legislators-gone-wild programs. The more Americans learn about them the more outraged they become.

Obama also is not filling critical political appointee positions fast enough to do all the important things that need done. Of the several hundred who require Senate confirmation so far he's only nominated 44. None of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's 17 top deputies have been nominated in the middle of what Obama has declared the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Obama’s working on his third nominee for Commerce secretary, while hundreds of other political appointees who don't require Senate confirmation and who are necessary to move Obama's programs forward  wait in the wings.

When he finally gets them all in place he'll discover the unique problems and challenges that come with being the leader of the vast federal bureaucracy. Even when the majorities in Congress are the same party as the president, relationships between the legislative and executive branches are often strained. Intra-department rivalry is commonplace, and Emaneul’s leadership is no substitute for the president’s. Obama will have to decide just how much of a hands-on president he wants and needs to be. I've watched the previous four presidential administrations sort themselves out. It took 18 months to 2 years before they got their acts together.

Obama’s in a race against time. He knows that Democrats will lose seats in both the House and the Senate in the 2010 mid-term election, giving Republicans the solid ability to block his proposals. He must achieve major successes before then; and he may not have that long.

Political capital is like the value of a new car, the minute you drive it off the lot is starts dropping. Obama doesn’t have to lose that much political capital before he finds himself on a much more difficult path. He can replenish that capital if he turns the economy around, but he isn’t likely to do that until he comes up with a plan to solve the banking crisis; and it doesn’t appear he's likely to do that anytime soon.

If Republicans want to thwart Obama’s agenda, they should find ways to keep the president traveling around the country selling his proposals as he did on the campaign trail. Americans have moved beyond sound bites. They understand their futures and their children’s futures are at stake. They want to know the details and the price. The less Obama personally focuses on staffing and leading his administration the more likely he is to find the economic crisis worsening and his health care, education, and energy proposals blocked in Congress by special interests and a rising sea of opposing public opinion.