Barack Obama is new to the US presidency, but he has already been compared to three of the greatest incumbents of the office - Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy. This unfairly heightens already overly lofty expectations. Historically, it is also wrong to put him in such esteemed company when we know so little of his leadership qualities. All we can truly say is that he is the first black man to hold the post, he knows how to play the political system, he gives a good speech and he is technology-savvy.
Only time can tell a president's place in history. Like Lincoln, Roosevelt and Kennedy, Mr Obama has taken office in troubled times; we hope he has the same attributes to lead the way to a brighter future. He well knows this - it is the reason he has hit the ground running. The new president is going to have a tough time enacting his policies. They will require many trillions of dollars and the US is in debt well over its head. Keeping customers satisfied will be tricky. For continued faith, results will be necessary.
Political wit requires 100 per cent attention; fortunes can easily tumble. Well-crafted speeches given with great oratorical skill do not, in themselves, keep the peace, placate the needy and restore a nation's credibility. Charisma is of little worth unless the person infused with it has something to offer. Which leaves Mr Obama with one tool that is of more worth than any other: the internet.
The comparison between Mr Obama and Lincoln is grounded mostly in the two being basically unknown and with limited national political experience when they assumed the presidency. With Kennedy, it is youth, intelligence and a movie-star aura. But it is with Roosevelt that the closest similarities are being drawn. As Time magazine explained when it put Mr Obama on the cover of its November 24 issue last year, dressed in the pose of the politician of the 1930s and first half of the 1940s, both first took office in the depths of an economic crisis armed with plans for public-work projects intended to get the US back on its feet.
But if we are to put Roosevelt and Mr Obama on the same pedestal, it would be better to turn to their use of new media rather than say it is because of depressions and 'New Deal' economics. I have American media commentator and author Paul Levinson to thank for drawing my attention to this. Roosevelt's masterful use of the then-new medium of radio made him a father figure and level-headed, comforting voice to Americans in times of dire need. Kennedy used his looks and charm to woo voters through television. Mr Obama has used the internet like no politician before him and he can, to a significant degree, put his taking the oath of office down to his use of websites, blogs, YouTube, social network services, e-mails and mobile-phone texting. I wager that, if he is to keep euphoria high, support at fever pitch and to one day stand shoulder to shoulder with the presidential greats, he will have to stay a technological step ahead of the sceptics.
Dr Levinson, a professor of communications and media studies at Fordham University in New York, examines how the ever-changing internet is shaping politics and our lives in a book to be published in the spring, New New Media. He said the key to Mr Obama's internet success was that he had empowered people to become active rather than passive observers of his electoral campaign. Through the internet, he would be able to stay in much closer contact with the American people. His policies would therefore be more sensitive to their needs.