Without a doubt, thepresidential administration of Barack Obama is heavy with expectation. Not in recent times has an entire country, an entire world, lifted up their eyes towards a single man for some sort of slight salvation.

But most of those anticipations surrounding Obama are tempered with a bit of realism that, no matter the promises of change and of hope, our president will be limited in what he can really do for us all.

As we move beyond the landmark inauguration, Pine recently asked its readers their expectations of the promised changes from our new president.

For many, the election of Barack Obama did two things right off the bat -- "it improved the United State's image abroad, and it demonstrated that the U.S. electorate isn't quite as ignorant and racist as so many had thought,” said Vince Gawronski, an associate professor of political science at Birmingham-Southern College.

Most believe more change is on its way, be it in foreign policy or in health care. For example, reader Michelle Putnam expects "the number of uninsured will decrease and that the cost of insurance will be lowered,” a sentiment echoed by others, including Katherine Colohan. But while Colohan is hopeful, she also fears “the big insurance companies won’t let that happen.”

Gavin Frederick  included universal health care on his list of three realistic expectations of the Obama administration. The other two?  Getting the economy back on track, and getting the country out of Iraq.

But oddly enough, the war wasn’t terribly high on many folk’s list, though some feel troop numbers will continue to rise in Afghanistan. But while ideas of war weren’t stressed so strongly, many expressed hope that Obama’s election will spur better relations with countries abroad.

Along with the economy, most everyone has solid expectations for how Obama will affect foreign policy. For example, Beth Malone said she is “very excited to see how drastically our foreign policy will change - I look forward to lengthy discussion rather than lengthy battle.” Jerrod Windham is of a similar mind. Windham feels that with Obama’s administration will come “better foreign policy… less of a cowboy gunslinger approach to the threats posed by terrorists.”

Some feel that Obama shouldn’t be alone in instituting changes that will affect us all.

“The most I can hope for is the opportunity to quit having to fight harmful bills all the time,” said Rachel Spiewak. “What I'm hoping for is a change in attitude and policies towards community organizing so we can get right down to work collectively addressing the problems we inherited.”

And even others had suggestions for policies they feel would benefit individual communities. With the repayment rates on student loans continuing to fall, Heather Feinstein would like to see Obama set up a system where people could work off student loan debt by contributing to society in some way such as community service or by working to improve infrastructure.

For Maynard Eaton, the shift might be more in attitude.

“I expect a change in the spirit and spunk of our nation -- a rekindling of the can-do spirit,” Eaton said. “That said I believe there are some tough times ahead that President Obama will be hard pressed to change.”

And the challenges that face the administration are, for some, more of a political nature.

For example, Maggie White is “hopeful that Obama will bring new sensitivity and accountability to American government… (but) it's still politics so I'm keeping my cards close to my chest.” Ben Grad wrote that he is “expecting more of the same.  While Obama is everything I'd want in a president, there's only so much he can do to change the entrenched military/industrial power system that been building since Reagan's presidency.”

Some feel the administration will cause more harm than good.

“… I think the new administration will be making some bad mistakes with certain policy decisions,” Shan Muthersbaugh said. “It is not looking so pretty.”

Some readers have outright disdain for some of the potential changes to come.

“I expect a sharp move toward a more socialist economic system, cheered on by the majority of Americans who want government protection for their bad luck and bad decisions,” Jeff Clark said. “But hey, Europe will love us!”

And as one anonymous reader said, “the best we can hope for is a slightly less hawkish status quo. Unfortunately that equates to something on the order of pumping the brakes after you've careened off the bridge. Or maybe still beating someone to death, but mercifully using your fists instead of a club. What we can really expect are some deep psychic scars when millions of people realize that the populist they voted for is just another politician.”