What a difference four short years makes says Brian Darling, a congressional analyst for the Heritage Foundation.

Darling predicts Obama’s tax policy will have an immediate effect on small businesses and result in many individuals seeing their marginal tax rate double. Any Supreme Court retirements would dramatically change the direction of American jurisprudence. And he warns that the push for new regulations is the wrong reaction to problems on Wall Street.

“We need more capitalism, not less. Telecommunications has thrived without regulations, and our economy should make sure that politicians in Washington do not try to regulate and tax our way out of the current economic downturn.”

University of Arkansas political scientist Bob Maranto says the Illinois senator is a pragmatist tactically: “Obama knows that if you try to impose things like racial quotas and gay marriage, that would not be a vote-winner. But if you appoint federal judges who impose those policies, you can evade responsibility.”

Maranto suspects those are the judges Obama would appoint.

He warns that Obama is no fool. “Socialism is dead, and Barack Obama knows it,” he explains. “He would, however, favor a very strong government hand in regulating the economy, both because he believes that government knows best and because that means more subsidies and jobs to hand out to supporters, and more votes and PAC contributions to get in return.”

All four men agree that if Obama becomes president with Congress sharing his beliefs, then “change” is definite – but not infinite.

The degree of success or enforcement, they say, depends on how far the press and the next mid-term election will allow the new president and Congress to go.