History has taught us not to take presidential first years too seriously: No one foresaw how Vietnam would doom LBJ or Watergate would unhorse Nixon.
Dr. Larry J. Sabato is the university professor of politics at the University of Virginia and director of the Center for Politics, founded at UVA in 1998 to improve civic education and the political process. Sabato's political analysis can be found at the Crystal Ball. The author of more than 20 books, his most recent is The Year of Obama: How Barack Obama Won the White House.