The clock has started

For future reference: on Inauguration Day 2009, President Obama's favorability rating is 78%-79%. Bush's final approval rating was 31%-32%, after entering in 2000 with a rating around 50% and reaching ~85% right after 9-11.

As I said in another thread elsewhere, I see part of Obama's popularity being his supporters viewing him as a tabula rasa who everyone has projected their particular hopes and expectations onto. It'll be very interesting to see how long he can go as POTUS before the honeymoon is over and the relief over Bush being out of office stops carrying the weight it does now. Perhaps I'm wrong and the electorate's expectations are reasonable, in which case his approval ratings should still be in the 60%-65% range a couple of years from now. Time will tell.