An interesting question then is whether Obama will govern, as I have suggested he might, like Dwight Eisenhower, keeping an arm's length distance from his party and seeking a larger consensus. Some of his acts during his transition suggest he is so inclined, such as his inclusion of tax cuts in his stimulus package and his meticulous outreach to congressional leaders of the other party. Some of the things he has been talking about -- responding to the financial crisis, reforming entitlements -- as a practical matter require congressional supermajorities, if only to give all sides political cover.

His inaugural contained a few cheap shots to delight the left. "We will restore science to its rightful place." "We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." But there were also words that should encourage the right. The market's "power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched." "We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense."

On Jan. 15, perhaps anticipating Obama's inauguration, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband rejected the idea that we faced a war on terrorism with "a unified, transnational enemy."

But Obama said, "Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred." To whom his message was: "Our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you." In his determination to protect the country, Obama may turn out to resemble his predecessor more than some Europeans would like.

Obama at close hand, as I have had the chance to see him earlier this month, is a man of supreme self-confidence who lays out long-term strategies and then executes them methodically, as he did in his campaign. Kennedy, from what I can tell, was, too; he started planning his 1960 campaign at his Thanksgiving dinner table in 1956. Kennedy made his mistakes -- some serious -- and Obama has assured us he'll make some, too.

But Americans in the 1960s were unusually indulgent of the grandson of an Irish saloonkeeper, and I'm inclined to think we also will be indulgent of, in Obama's words, "a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant."