So Obama takes the reigns on January 20th. I'm just wondering what he will do differently.

Priority areas he will have to deal with are:

1. the war on terror fought mainly in Afghanistan
2. managing the drawdown of troops in Iraq
3. the economy and unemployment
4. repairing America's image around the world

I think those will be his four main objectives in his first term and depending how well he does with them may determine if he gets a second term or not.

I don't think he can do any worse than Bush on the economy and if he gets the same advisors as Bill Clinton had, then he should do alright.

Fighting the war on terror, it will be interesting to see if Obama will have the same callous neglect for innocent civilians in the line of fire as Bush had. In Iraq and Afghanistan, if terrorists were surrounded by civilians, at the moment no distinction is made during an attack by US forces.

The current adminstration don't seem to have an exit strategy from Iraq but to 'stay the course'. Obama will start the drawdown of troops right away imo.

In terms of repairing America's image, he will be more multilateral, he will work with the UN, he may sign up to environmental agreements.