Obama will be expected to move quickly, and his every decision will receive intense scrutiny. The way that a president conducts his transition says a

Obama will be expected to move quickly, and his every decision will receive intense scrutiny. The way that a president conducts his transition says a lot about the kind of president he will be, according to those who study the changing of the presidential guards.

Paul C. Light, who teaches public service at New York University and specializes in the study of presidential transitions, says that Obama should "open the conversation with the American people" with town-hall meetings or other unfiltered encounters.

Then Obama should go to a stronghold of McCain supporters, like Mississippi or Georgia, Light says, to begin the post-election healing process.

"One would hope that Obama's first meeting would be with McCain," Light says. The larger the margin of victory, "the more important it becomes to try to get McCain's support once McCain returns to the Senate."