The Obama First 100 Days - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good -

Pres. Obama has wisely walked away from the demagoguery of Candidate Obama on the subject of Iraq. This administration has thus far taken a principled and intelligent course in handling Iraq (they've stayed the course on George Bush's successful strategy, frnakly).

Pres. Obama empowered the Navy to take out the Somali pirates.

Geithner and Bernake's efforts to free up liquidity in world credit markets have thus far forestalled a catastrophe. We could and should argue with their methods, but applaud them for taking decisive action, and give them the benefit of the doubt that their actions were, on the whole, for the better.

The Bad

Nearly tripling the federal deficit, after Candidate Obama berated Pres. Bush for his deficits. Setting up our children and grandchildren to pay the bills for this administration's profligate spending. Dishonestly passing off massive liberal spending programs as "stimulus."

Projecting weakness all over the globe - offering to trade away missile defenses in Europe, bowing and scraping to Ahmedinejad, ignoring North Korea's provocative missile launch (on the same day as the President's no-nuke "I have a dream" speech), apologizing to and cow-towing with Latin thug dictators in Trinidad and Tobago, de-funding key missile defense programs, cutting major weapons systems, failing to spend any stimulus on Defense, in fact cutting Defense spending (under the cover of an accounting ruse with respect to how the current war is paid for)...

The Ugly

The President has shown a consistent pattern of walking away from opportunites to lead his party and moderate the influence of the left-wing crazies in their midst. For what it's worth, it remains to be seen if this is because he himself is a left wing crazy, or just because he lacks the the resolve to oppose them.

Pandering to the MoveOn crowd's blood vengeance by opening the door to politically motivated prosecutions of Bush administration officials who developed and implemented our post 9/11 interrogation policies. For political reasons, risking taking our nation down the Third World path to truth commissions and political prisoners. Undermining our ability to deal with similar threats to our homeland security in the future by disclosing in detail our past tactics. Endangering the lives of our brave personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan by supplying our enemies with grist for their propaganda mills.

Deferring to Nancy Pelosi and company in driving our fiscal policy. Blithely signing a budget bill with 9000 earmarks. Claiming to be post-partisan, while passively watching the Congressional democrats walk all over the budget process and resorting to extraordinary measures to deny the Republicans a say in major policy decisions, like re-making our health care system or potentially imposing a $650B carbon tax on our already struggling economy.

The Bottom Line

I am not "hope"-ful. So far, Pres. Obama seems to care first and foremost about his image and popularity. Domestically, he is either a leftist ideologue or one of the most cynical political players the White House has ever seen. Or both. On foreign policy, he is hopelessly naive and frankly, anti-American in his outlook. He doesn't seem, however, to be beyond help on foreign affairs. His ideas seem more fluid, and the influence of the left less potent than in domestic policy (yes, the "torture memos were released to placate the leftists, but I think President Obama mistakenly thought he could throw them a bone without opening Pandora's box). At least on the foreign policy front, I see the possibility that he could learn from his early failures and go on to be a decent foreign policy president. I don't see anything short of Democratic electoral defeat setting us back on a rational footing on the domestic front.