The First One Hundred Days

The first hundred days seems to be the yardstick in judging the early performance of a newly elected president since the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. However it is not necessarily the best way in judging the effectiveness of a president. Many of the policies that a president puts into place take years to reveal its impact on the U.S. and the world. The media for the most part has created the first hundred days benchmark. It does serve one very important purpose, and that is, has the new president hit the ground running. In the case of Barrack Obama he has, and he has run faster than any president before him since FDR’s legendary first one hundred days. Barrack Obama entered the Presidency in the midst of an economic crisis, two wars in need of reassessment, and an International environment that has not been this anti-United States in the entire history of the country. His plate was full, but Obama was hungry, and though he has not finished everything yet, he has shown the American people that maybe one day we can ask for seconds. The economic crisis has had Obama’s complete attention and he has responded quickly though not to everyone’s satisfaction. His $819 billion economic recovery plan has passed with no Republican backing in the House, and is among the biggest piece of legislation in history. This is believed to be a vitally important piece of legislation to prevent dire economic circumstances. With interest rates at nearly zero, and increasing amount of unemployed, increasing by 2.2 million people since December 2008, something else had to be done. With very little Republican support Obama has had to rely on the Democratic majority in both the House and Senate, making substantial legislation far easier to pass. It is still to early to definitively say if Obama's bail out has succeeded but there are indications that the stock market has reached the floor and will begin rebounding. The value of the U.S. stock market has increased by 4% since January 20, 2009, yet another sign that there is an end to the tunnel and that it is within reach. Barrack Obama has made it clear that more troops must be dedicated to the war in Afghanistan and he has also drawn up a timetable for a withdrawal from Iraq. In the past three months Obama has deployed 5,000 more troops to Afghanistan, and withdrawn 7,000 from Iraq. Even with the decrease in troops, the number of bombings in Iraq with three or more casualties has decreased from 73 in the first quarter of 2008 to 31 in the first quarter of 2009. However Afghanistan is showing no such improvement in fact in many respects it is becoming more volatile, much of this has to do with the increasing instability of Pakistan. The number of insurgent attacks in Afghanistan has increased from 1,600 in the first quarter of 2008 to 2,700 in the first quarter of 2009. The difficult task of restoring the United States’ reputation in the international community falls squarely on the shoulders of Barrack Obama. Obama’s foreign policy is a departure from the Bush policy of “If you’re not with us you’re against us”, believing more in the art of negotiation and multilateralism. Barrack Obama has traveled the world in the first one hundred days setting the ton for the new U.S. policies under the Obama administration, and he has been met with warmth and admiration. Simply the election of Obama has regained some soft power, and is statement by the American people that they want change. Obama has promised to shut down Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, which has lately been ground zero for the torture controversy and is a symbol of the Bush ideology. This promise sends a strong message to other states that the U.S. wants to establish trust lost during the Bush Administration. Obama has also offered to talk with both Syria and Iran, and even shook the hand of Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela. But what does this mean? Will words and a couple handshakes change anything? Well when the words are spoken from the most powerful man in the most powerful county in the world they do. By reaching out to enemies of the United States and saying that it is time to talk and negotiate, Obama is doing two things. The first is showing willingness to negotiate before using action, something that Bush did not do, and second he is making our enemies make the next move. All three of these states Syria, Iran, and Venezuela use the fact that the U.S. was bellicose and unwilling to negotiate as fuel to the anti-U.S. fire. By changing the tone of U.S. foreign policy it also forces our enemies to do the same. Though Obama’s focus is on negotiation he has shown that he is not afraid of using force. Obama gave authorization for Navy Seal snipers to rescue an American cargo ship captain captured by Somali pirates off the Horn of Africa. The operation resulted in the death of three Somali pirates and the successful rescue of the captain, ending a five-day standoff. This action showed that the U.S., though taking a less confrontational approach in dealing with other states, can still carry out a mission with deadly accuracy and precision. Obama has had a productive and seemingly successful first one hundred days in office, diving into problems head first, and creating legislation that will lead the U.S. in new direction. The American people for the most part back him and he has an astounding approval rate of 68%. His positive approach to the presidency and his current success leaves Americans hopeful that greater days lie in the future.