With two wars, a looming depression and a nation defined by anxiety and fear, Obama has a pretty tough job. But there is one easy part: he can remind us he's not George Bush.

Today, our Hopey President-elect used his laptop chat to pledge that he'd listen "to what our scientists have to say." And in a pretty clear nod to one of our greatest scientific minds, Al Gore, he added, "even when it’s inconvenient—especially when it’s inconvenient."