IT'S an American political tradition of sorts, the honeymoon period in the relationship between the newly-elected president of the US and the American people.

In the period between the Christmas Holiday and its spirit of love and forgiveness and the pomp and circumstance of Inauguration Day, the country puts behind the political fury of the presidential election year as its gets closer to the inauguration of a new president. All Americans of all political parties and ideological persuasions, Republicans, Democrats and Independents, conservatives and liberals, come together in celebrating the peaceful transition of power in Washington. One occupant is vacating the White House and a new resident enters one of the world's most famous addresses, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Typically, on the eve of Inauguration Day, even the fiercest adversaries of the president-elect rally behind the incoming commander-in-chief. It's almost as if love is in the air. And the sentiments clearly tend to be reflected in the public opinion polls.