Obama Halts Outgoing Bush Proposals, Calls for Review

With the historic inauguration finally behind him, Barack Obama is at work as the 44th president of the United States. One of his first orders of business was to stop any pending "midnight" legislation that had been put in motion by the Bush administration and to have it reviewed from a legal and policy standpoint by his team. Both the last-minute legislation and the immediate halting are fairly common practice during the transition from one administration to the next. All legislation is required to have a 60-day review period before being enacted into law.

Some of the more controversial pieces of legislation involve the right to carry concealed weapons in certain national parks as well as a law that would protect hospitals and medical institutions from losing federal money when they discriminate against doctors or nurses who refuse to participate in abortion proceedings.

Now that the build-up to the inauguration is over, it will be most interesting to see what the media does with all of the coverage that it has been devoting to Obama, his family and the incoming administration. In general, governing is boring work. So it's going to be a challenge for major media networks to make the daily activities of the president interesting and marketable.

The powers that be within the media world are almost certainly hoping for a major world event to draw the attention and appetite of its viewing audience. Here's hoping that it's a pleasant one.