Call this a lowering of expectations by a figurehead of the mainstream media.

Newsweek editor Jon Meacham spoke candidly about his expectations for President-elect Barack Obama at an appearance promoting his latest book about former President Andrew Jackson, "American Lion," at the Politics & Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 7.

Meacham was asked to draw a comparison between Jackson and Obama on foreign policy, but told the audience he had doubts has to whether or not Obama was going to live up to the expectations many on the left had, especially when it came to the so-called past misdeeds of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.