President Obama Marks His First 100 Days

President Obama

By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer
April 30, 2009

Washington — Marking an odyssey that began 100 days ago when he became the first African-American president in U.S. history, President Obama reflected for long moments before the nation on what his presidency has achieved and what still needs to be done.

“I think we’re off to a good start. But it’s just a start. I’m proud of what we’ve achieved, but I’m not content,” Obama said in an April 29 hourlong, nationally televised press conference from the East Room of the White House.

“We still confront threats ranging from terrorism to nuclear proliferation as well as pandemic flu. And all this means you can expect an unrelenting, unyielding effort from this administration to strengthen our prosperity and our security — in the second hundred days, and the third hundred days, and all the days after that,” the president said.

THE FIRST 100 DAYS

The first 100 days is not an official measure of an American presidency. By tradition, it has become a way of taking stock, of pausing to reflect on the words and actions of a candidate-turned-president who no longer is running for office. The tradition dates back to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who, after taking office in 1933, was able in the first 100 days to push through 15 major pieces of legislation aimed primarily at helping America recover from the economic devastation of the Great Depression.

Some news media analysts have tried to compare Obama’s first hundred days to those of Roosevelt, but historians and political scientists say there is nothing magical about the number.

“I think people are always looking for a marker or some sort of guidepost,” said Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University, according to Reuters.

For Obama, it has been a period marked by significant changes in foreign affairs, and difficult but straightforward economic policies. And now his administration has had to develop a rapid response to the H1N1 flu, commonly known as swine flu, which is sweeping across the world.

A FRESH APPROACH ON FOREIGN POLICY

“I campaigned on the promise that I would change the direction of our nation’s foreign policy — and we’ve begun to do that,” the president said.

While campaigning for president, Obama set three overarching goals for U.S. foreign policy: re-establish America’s standing in the world; create an open dialogue with friends, partners and adversaries based on mutual respect; and work together in building and strengthening partnerships.

The United States has begun to end its combat mission in Iraq, fulfilling a significant pledge Obama made to the American people and one that he said was essential to strengthen U.S. security and to strengthen the Iraqi people. In the first month of his new administration, Obama pledged to remove U.S. combat forces from Iraq in a responsible way. And in a speech to U.S. Marines at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Obama said, “Let me say this as plainly as I can: By August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end.”

On Afghanistan and Pakistan, Obama said he forged with NATO allies a new strategy targeted at the terrorist group al-Qaida and the former Taliban regime. It is believed that the remnants of both groups are hiding in the rugged mountains that divide the two nations in Southwest Asia. Before leaving for the G20 Financial Summit in London in early April, Obama announced a comprehensive strategy that focuses not only on the military and the need to ensure the security of the United States and its allies, but also one that addresses the very real problems that exist there.

The president told reporters that he is “gravely concerned about the situation in Pakistan, not because I think that they’re immediately going to be overrun and the Taliban would take over in Pakistan; [I am] more concerned that the civilian government there right now is very fragile and [they] don’t seem to have the capacity to deliver basic services — schools, health care, rule of law, a judicial system that works for the majority of the people.”

For those reasons, Obama said, it is imperative that the United States and its allies help Pakistan help Pakistanis. “We will provide them all the cooperation that we can,” he said.

On May 6–7, Obama will hold trilateral meetings with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari in Washington.

GUANTÁNAMO DETENTION CENTER

In the first 48 hours of the Obama presidency, he issued executive orders to close the detention center on the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, within a year, to address the treatment and legal status of detainees, and to ban enhanced and exceedingly harsh interrogation methods.

“We have rejected the false choice between our security and our ideals by closing the detention center at Guantánamo Bay and by banning torture without exception,” the president said.

As part of the renewed foreign policy engagement, Obama traveled to Europe in early April for the G20 Summit in London where leaders addressed the economic crisis; then to the NATO Summit to address Afghanistan and Pakistan and the need to revitalize the North Atlantic Alliance; and additional trips to Canada, Mexico and Turkey, the European Union Summit, and the Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

“We’ve renewed our diplomatic efforts to deal with challenges ranging from the global economic crisis to the spread of nuclear weapons,” Obama said.