Date: Thursday, April 30, 2009
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In his first 100 days in office, President Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president, wasted no time addressing a myriad of economic, health and education challenges facing Americans and, according to one of his senior White House aides, is "hitting the ground running."

"I’m very impressed," Valerie Jarrett, a senior advisor to Obama, said in a conference call with black journalists Tuesday. "In the course of a day, [Obama] can go into a meeting, and he can maintain his ability to stay focused on the task at hand."

Obama, Jarrett said, "will not make the easy solution" to a problem, "but will take the time to get it right. He can respond to any crisis."

Obama’s first 100 days comes as a recent New York Times/CBS News poll shows that Obama’s presidency "seems to be altering the public perception of race relations in the United States. Two-thirds of Americans now say race relations are generally good, and the percentage of blacks who say so has doubled since last July," according to the poll.

"Despite that, half of blacks still say whites have a better chance of getting ahead in American society," the poll found. "Black Americans remain among the president’s staunchest supporters; 70 percent of black respondents now say the country is headed in the right direction, compared with 34 percent of whites."

As Obama approached his first 100 days in the White House, his administration moved quickly to list the president’s most high-profile initiatives so far, while the media graded Obama’s domestic and foreign policy efforts.

An Associated Press-GfK poll shows that 48 percent of Americans believe the United States is headed in the right direction under Obama’s direction — compared with 44 percent who disagree.

While liberal journalists generally give Obama high marks for his handling on the economy and his efforts to improve the U.S. image overseas, conservatives argue that Obama’s policies will drive the country deeper into debt and will not solve the nation’s economic crisis - the worst economic predicament since The Great Depression.

For black folks and the economic crisis, however, Jarrett said: "The African-American community feels it more than the general public."

Jarrett said although Obama knows there is much work ahead, the president is comfortable with the foundation he has put in place since being elected.

Jarrett said she is especially pleased that Obama created The White House Office on Urban Affairs, an ambitious effort "near and dear to my heart," she noted, aimed at using federal funds to overhaul urban centers across the country.

"We’re working hard to turn our cities around," Jarrett said.

She told black journalists that she is also proud that Obama has appointed a "historic" number of African-Americans to his administration.

Meanwhile, the White House listed a range of initiatives that the president has created:

- President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law, a measure that saves or creates 3.5 million jobs nationwide.

- One of President Obama’s first acts upon taking office was to extend health coverage to 4 million uninsured children by enacting legislation reauthorizing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

- In February, President Obama announced a foreclosure prevention package that helps up to 9 million homeowners obtain better mortgage terms. It allows up to 5 million homeowners to refinance into cheaper mortgages and invested $75 billion to keep up to 4 million homeowners out of foreclosure.

- President Obama’s recovery package prevents devastating cuts to education by providing $53.6 billion to states and school districts to prevent layoffs and cuts in critical services. It also invests $25 billion in support for educating at risk students and those with special needs.

- The president has improved the United States' relationship with Cuba.
 
- The President’s Summit of the Americas with leaders of color helped start a positive dialogue for relations with Latin America and the Caribbean.

"At the conclusion of President Obama's first 100 days in office, most Americans will probably sigh with relief that despite what his opponents said would happen if elected, America still stands and the world is still round," said Michelle Bernard, president of the Independent Women’s Voice and an MSNBC contributor. "Over the last 100 days, the president has proven himself a quite capable and politically astute leader. We see the same unflappability and sharpness in the president that we saw in the candidate."

"There have been a few mistakes, like the series of appointees with tax problems and the failure to post legislation on the web as promised; however, given his handling of the global economic crisis and the two wars we are involved with, in time, these hiccups will be forgotten," said Bernard. "Ironically, the president has shown himself to be particularly adept at handling foreign policy and national security issues. The execution of three Somali pirates demonstrated the type of muscle many felt were missing on issues of this nature during the campaign. This is a president with great determination and fortitude. The question is what lies ahead in the next 100 days."
 
Says Charles Ellison, director of the Center for New Politics: "Observers will make critical distinctions between President Obama's style and substance during these first 100 days. Overall, he's had a strong, solid start, with approval ratings high enough to offer the political capital needed to manage through some precarious times. Hence, we've seen some bold, symbolic victories in terms of his presidential presence - from an aggressive and constant multi-media communications apparatus to the euphoria surrounding his overseas visits abroad. We've also seen some major accomplishments - from the rapid implementation of an economic stimulus to his deliberate, calculated handling of the Somali pirate hostage crisis. Critics will note he didn't get much out of the European trip as far as troop support for Afghanistan and EU stimulus was concerned - but, maybe his goal was to start slow, to first find common ground and strike the right chords with Obama charm and personality."

The president has, Ellison said, "successfully differentiated himself globally from his predecessor, which is essential, and he's struck a new tone of pragmatism and diplomacy. We should observe with a critical eye, but we shouldn't micro-manage. If anything, President Obama has proven during these first 100 days that he is, indeed, a very capable leader with sharp management skills. More important, he's instilled confidence, offering a sense that he's in control, the extent of which is absolutely crucial at the moment." 

How does the Rev. Jesse Jackson rate the president so far? "There are some A's and a couple of incompletes," Jackson told Hazel Trice Edney of the National Newspaper Publishers Association. "I think the position against torture, an A; the G-20 conference, putting a credible face on America’s foreign policy where he has trust capital and Bush had trust deficit-disorder."

"Remember this," writes David Broder of The Washington Post. "What has happened so far is no more than the overture to the first act of this opera. The big stuff is still to come. The soprano has not opened her mouth for her signature aria. That will be health care reform. The devilish baritone is still offstage. Wait for the first international crisis. Barack Obama has launched a lot of schemes, but has fulfilled few of them. What he has shown - and it is an important accomplishment in itself - is a mastery of the art of managing the presidency."

"The most important thing we now know about Barack Obama, after nearly 100 days in office, is that he means to confront that way of life directly and profoundly, to exchange sand for rock if he can," says Joe Klein of Time magazine. "Whether you agree with him or not — whether you think he is too ambitious or just plain wrong — his is as serious and challenging a presidency as we have had in quite some time. 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."