The First 100 Days

During my career, I have had several demanding and challenging jobs, each with a fair amount of responsibility.   I never accepted a new position without believing I had the experience and qualifications that were necessary for me to perform my new responsibilities successfully.   Nevertheless, in hindsight, I think it generally took me about a year to learn a new job and to get comfortable with my new surroundings, my new boss, and my new colleagues.  

Of course, I never had a job that even comes close to being as demanding as the position of President of the United States.   The President of the United States is responsible for protecting the country against foreign enemies, for managing a massive federal bureaucracy with hundreds of thousands of employees, and for overseeing an annual budget of approximately $3.5 trillion.  In addition, the President has responsibility for dealing with a federal indebtedness in excess of $11 trillion, which does not include almost $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities under entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security.   On top of everything else, our new President, Barak Obama, has pledged to fulfill his campaign promise of “fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”   All of this is a huge undertaking for someone who has never run a business—not even a hot dog stand—and has never managed a group of people larger than his campaign staff. 

Under the circumstances, I do not think it is fair to evaluate President Obama after he has spent only 100 days in office.  I would not want to be evaluated publicly after only 100 days in a new job.  Whether it’s fair or not, most political commentators and members of the news media are spending a lot of time evaluating President Obama on his first 100 days as President of the United States.  With apologies to President Obama, and with the acknowledgement that he inherited a boat-load of problems, I am going to join in the fun and give you my observations about President Obama’s first 100 days in office.        

Overall, I do not think there have been any great surprises during President Obama’s first 100 days in office.   Before his election, President Obama was rated as the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate.    Based on his first 100 days in office, it appears likely he will become the most liberal President in the history of the United States.    There is still a possibility that President Obama will become more moderate over time, but there have been few indications of moderation during his first 100 days. 

President Obama’s greatest assets continue to be the same assets that enabled him to win the election.    These assets include his personal charm, his wonderful smile, his calm demeanor, his oratory skills, his charisma, and his ability to obtain the unquestionable allegiance of most members of the news media.    It is difficult not to like President Obama on a personal level even if you disagree with his political philosophies.       

Although it was never in doubt, it is now very clear that the country under President Obama will continue moving down the road to socialism.     President Obama should not be blamed for putting us on the road to socialism.    We have been traveling down this road for several decades under both Democratic and Republican Administrations.     President Obama has simply accelerated the pace at which we are now speeding down this road.  

What else have we learned during the first 100 days of the Obama Administration? 

We know President Obama has ambitious and aggressive plans to make huge changes in how the country operates.   We know he wants to implement as many changes as possible as quickly as possible while he is still enjoying a honeymoon period with the public and while his personal popularity is still high.   The changes we can anticipate will affect virtually every aspect of our lives, including how and how much our businesses are regulated, how we receive our health care, the type of cars we drive, the cost of heating and cooling our homes, and how much of our earnings will be taken by the government.  

We know President Obama has been successful in cooling down emotions over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.     The wars are now his responsibility, and he seems to be dealing with them responsibly.    The noise level over the wars has been reduced substantially.  Those who strongly and vocally opposed the wars are now much more quiet if not supportive of President Obama’s efforts.  

With the exception of the public discourse over the wars, we know President Obama has not been successful in bringing a new era of civility to politics.   I do not believe he has even tried.  Instead, he is a purely political animal like most other politicians.   He loves to be in front of the cameras on a daily basis, and his public appearances and speeches feel like campaign rallies.    Before the election, President Obama campaigned primarily against President Bush and his record, even though President Bush was not running for re-election.    Since winning the election, President Obama has continued an aggressive campaign to blame President Bush for all of the problems that are now his responsibility.   There have been no indications that President Obama has any intention of governing in a bipartisan manner, as he promised to do.   In fact, he has basically said to the Republicans, “I won. You lost. Deal with it.”   

We know President Obama loves big government and believes government is the answer to all of our problems.    He seems to want government to own, control, or regulate everything.  He wants you to be more dependent on government.  He believes government can spend your money more wisely than you can.  

We know President Obama, who rightly criticized President Bush for his fiscal irresponsibility, has plans to more than double the level of President Bush’s budget deficits and to increase substantially the federal debt that will be inherited by future generations.     

We know President Obama sees more things wrong than right with the United States of America.   He does not see the “shining city upon a hill” that President Reagan frequently described.  Instead, he seems to be preoccupied with—and to have a need to apologize for—what he considers to be the country’s past sins.  He has spent a fair amount of time during his first 100 days in office apologizing to foreign leaders and citizens of foreign countries for the country he was elected to serve.         

We know President Obama was willing to reject the advice of at least four former directors of the CIA and release on a selective basis previously highly classified documents describing some of the interrogation tactics used by the Bush Administration in the aftermath of September 11, 2001.   The release of these documents was a clearly divisive action designed to please President Obama’s political supporters and damage his political opponents.   We also know President Obama so far has been unwilling to release other classified documents that might justify the tactics described in the documents he released.   Moreover, we know President Obama has plans in the near future to release photographs showing abusive treatment of prisoners despite the fact these photographs will be inflammatory and will provide justification to terrorists who want to kill American citizens.    There can be no doubt that President Obama, in order to score political points, has substantially weakened the effectiveness of our intelligence agencies and has weakened our national security.   

We know President Obama was willing to authorize Navy snipers to kill three pirates in order to save one American life, but he has said he will not permit government interrogators to inflict physical or mental harm against an individual who may possess information that could be used to save thousands of American lives.   

Here is my bottom line regarding the first 100 days of the Obama Administration.   If you voted for President Obama, you should be very happy because you are getting exactly what you wanted or should have expected.   If you voted against President Obama, you should be very unhappy—but not surprised—because you are getting exactly what you feared.