Miss out on some of our blog posts from this week? Worry not—we're here to fill you in on what the most popular blog posts were from the past seven days. See below for our top five.

Every new president faces a learning curve, and for Barack Obama it will be especially tough given that the country has a hurting economy, wars in two countries, and a big entitlement-spending problem as well as challenges in energy and healthcare.

Brookings presidential scholar Stephen Hess has been thinking about the transition and has pulled together a book aimed at an audience of one: What Do We Do Now? A Workbook for the President-Elect. Filled with tips, the book also includes a helpful reading list for President-elect Obama to keep nearby.

Here are works Hess recommends after surveying half a century of books on the presidency:

• William Safire’s Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History, specifically for Abraham Lincoln’s two inaugural addresses, FDR’s first inaugural, and John F. Kennedy’s inaugural.

• John P. Burke’s Becoming President: The Bush Transition, 2000–2003.

• Charles O. Jones’s Preparing to Be President—which includes Richard Neustadt’s memos to Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton—and his Passages to the Presidency: From Campaigning to Governing .

• Bradley Patterson’s new book, To Serve the President: Continuity and Innovation in the White House Staff.

• Robert Schlesinger’s White House Ghosts: Presidents and Their Speechwriters.

• Fred Greenstein’s The Presidential Difference: Leadership Style From FDR to George W. Bush.

• James P. Pfiffner’s The Strategic Presidency: Hitting the Ground Running.

This article first appeared in the December 2008 issue of The Washingtonian. For more articles from that issue, click here. 

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Miss out on some of our blog posts from this week? Worry not—we're here to fill you in on what the most popular blog posts were from the past seven days. See below for our top five.

Barack Obama had not been around long enough to rate being classified by Dana Milbank in last December’s Homo Politicus: The Strange and Scary Tribes That Run Our Government, his anthropological romp through “Potomac Land.” With tongue in cheek, the columnist categorized Washington’s political classes—the press, for example, is its “Greek chorus.” The President-elect’s only mention: “Obama surged in popularity and announced his presidential candidacy shortly after a photo appeared in People magazine of him in a bathing suit as part of a ‘Beach Babes’ spread also showing Catherine Zeta-Jones and Penelope Cruz.”

So how would the Post’s purveyor of political satire describe Obama now?

Photo by Flickr user ktylerconk

Good news if you're traveling today! AAA Mid-Atlantic estimates that (only!) 765,400 people in the Washington area will be traveling for the holiday. That's down 1.5 percent from last year. How's that for a silver lining?

Want a new Thanksgiving dish to add to your repertoire? You could try this yummy sausage, apple, and mushroom stuffing.

Capitol Hill Style has some Turkey Day fashion tips and an outfit that will look cute no matter how much you eat.

Can't get enough of photo contests? After you're done voting in ours, head over to Prince of Petworth and check out his Thanksgiving-themed contest. 

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