Maybe commentators who say that the 100-day mark for presidents is "bogus" have a point. Given all the economic troubles of today, though, it makes sense that people are paying close attention to President Barack Obama's first 100 days in office, and to how well he's kept his promises.
PolitiFact, the
Pulitzer Prize-winning project of Poynter's
St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, has a feature called the Obameter, which tracks
how well the president is keeping his campaign promises. Of the estimated 500 promises Obama has made,
he has kept 27 and
broken six. Sixty-one promises are
"in the works."PolitiFact lets you browse by category:
Results from a new Associated Press poll are complimentary of Obama's first 100 days and show that for the first time in years, Americans think the country is on the right track.
The Wall Street Journal's "Obama's First 100 Days" blog is tracking how the administration is doing.
The Los Angeles Times summed up the first 100 days, saying:
"Just shy of 100 days in office, he has ordered the closure of the Guantanamo Bay military prison and a troop withdrawal from Iraq; made it easier for women to sue for job discrimination; eased a ban on stem cell research; extended healthcare coverage to millions of children; ousted the head of General Motors; reached out to the Muslim world; moved to ease tensions with Cuba; traveled to Canada, Europe, Turkey and Latin America; and set aside huge tracts of wilderness for federal protection.
"More broadly, Obama has seized on the worst economic crisis since the 1930s -- exploiting it, critics say -- and set out to reshape major aspects of everyday life: the price we pay to see a doctor, the size of our children's classrooms, the fuel we put in our cars."
Republicans have been criticizing Obama as the 100-day mark, April 29, nears:
"House Republican Leader Rep. John Boehner, of Ohio, said Wednesday that Obama's first 100 days in office had failed to turn around the economy, decrease unemployment or end an era of fiscal irresponsibility in Washington.
"'This Sunday, we come to National Debt Day. National Debt Day is the day during the fiscal year when we have spent all of the revenue coming in to the federal government,' Boehner said at a press conference in Washington. 'And so after Sunday -- every dime that is spent, every new program that is approved -- the money has to be borrowed from our kids and grandkids.'
"He added, 'This National Debt Day is three and a half months earlier this year than it was last year because of the stimulus bill.'"
Politico said Democrats will use the 100-day mark to launch an attack on Republicans:
"The Democratic National Committee [was scheduled on Wednesday, April 23, to present] a minute-long video, created in-house, called '100 Days of No,' showing various Republican congressional leaders sounding obstructionist.
"The White House, anxious to prolong the president’s honeymoon, has rejected the 100-days construct, a media concoction that dates to former President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Obama aides deride the convention as a 'Hallmark holiday,' so the DNC spot is the first official acknowledgment of the milestone.
"The on-screen text: 'After 100 days, the Republican approach is 'just saying no' ... Almost All Republicans Voted NO On Fair Pay For Women ... All But three Republicans Voted NO on economic recovery ... All Republicans voted NO on the president's budget/affordable health care/creating green jobs/reforming education/halving the deficit ... 100 DAYS OF NO."
Time summed up the first 100 days saying, in essence, that people shouldn't make too much of the 100-day marker:
"The idea that a President can be assessed in a mere 100 days is a journalistic conceit. Most presidencies evolve too slowly to be judged so quickly. Roosevelt set the initial standard in 1933, overpowering Congress and passing a slew of legislation to confront the Great Depression during his first three months in office. 'Lyndon Johnson had two 100-days periods," says historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, 'one after the Kennedy assassination and another after he was elected in 1964.'
"Indeed, Johnson's legislative haul dwarfs anything before or since; he quickly got Congress on track to pass landmark civil rights bills and create Medicare, among other things. 'And you have to say that Reagan had a significant 100 days,' Goodwin adds, 'because he represented a clear break from the policies of the past, even if his signature legislation -- the tax cuts -- didn't pass until after the 100 days were over. But I don't think we've ever seen anything like Obama since Roosevelt.'
"The legislative achievements have been stupendous -- the $789 billion stimulus bill, the budget plan that is still being hammered out (and may, ultimately, include the next landmark safety-net program, universal health insurance). There has also been a cascade of new policies to address the financial crisis -- massive interventions in the housing and credit markets, a market-based plan to buy the toxic assets that many banks have on their books, a plan to bail out the auto industry and a strict new regulatory regime proposed for Wall Street."
Take a look at some of the
editorial cartoons that have been created since the new administration took office.
