Anthony Painter sees much for which the chief should be hailed after his first hundred days in office
ON A recent visit to California, I spent some time with relatives who live in a town called Watsonville. It’s a typical American middle-class town situated to the south-east of the hippie seaside resort town of Santa Cruz and the residents are mainly white European Americans and Mexican immigrants. Two of my relations are vocal, diehard Republicans. They might just have backed Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s, but otherwise they have not deviated from the Republican path. They voted for John McCain last year. However, to my amazement, they expressed admiration for the way Barack Obama has started his presidency.
How do you even begin to assess such a short political time span as 100 days? Starting with my Republican relations is as good a place as any. The statistics say that many others think the same as the Californian branch of my family. Obama’s approval rating, at 63 per cent, is about the same now as it was on his first day in the White House. Why has he won the respect – although not yet the support – of people such as my relatives? The tax rebate in his stimulus package helped. More than that, they feel comfortable with him and have some confidence in him.
It’s a debatable notion that the success of any president’s first 100 days in office can be properly judged on day 100. Those presidents whose first 100 days are regarded as successful are judged on how the foundations they lay moved the nation in the right direction from day one. But that is a judgement of history and can only be made with their benefit of hindsight.
The idea of a 100-day verdict started with Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidency. His first 100 days in 1933 saw the passage of a raft of legislation through the United States Congress under the umbrella of the New Deal: banking reform and support, help for agriculture, public project financing, refinancing of mortgages and the introduction of new forms of revenue for government – specifically through duties on alcohol.
This was a purely domestic agenda. Roosevelt failed to make any constructive contribution to the World Economic Conference in London in June 1933, which meant Germany continued to sag under the weight of oppressive war debts. Meanwhile, beggar-thy-neighbour protectionism continued to undermine world economic growth.
If we apply the test of history to FDR, he should get three cheers for preventing further economic misery in his country and beginning to turn it around. However, he deserves a major boo for failing to evade the economic and fiscal iceberg that would continue to push the world towards the Second World War.
Lyndon Johnson’s 100 days in the White House were, from a liberal perspective, the best since Roosevelt’s. He continued the work that John F Kennedy had started on civil rights. Segregation was outlawed in March 1964. Johnson also laid the groundwork for the “Great Society” legislation, beginning most importantly with Medicare – healthcare insurance provision for the elderly, which continues in the US to this day.
Ambition does not always end well. The catastrophe of the Vietnam War, inner-city riots and the social backlash unleashed by the Great Society’s largesse would leave Johnson’s administration in a state of collapse through exhaustion by early 1968. Who could have foreseen that at the end of his first 100 days?
So any assessment of President Obama’s first 100 days needs a number caveats attached to it. Nevertheless, the first 100 days of this administration stand comparison with the best start of any other. Roosevelt and Johnson focused on major issues of domestic economic or social reform. Obama has done that, too, but not exclusively. He has also pursued new approaches to foreign policy, international diplomacy and added environmental issues to the mix. This is not an administration that has adopted Aneurin Bevan’s “language of priorities”. It has ambitions to succeed on every front. And it wants to succeed quickly.
It is presiding over so many policy initiatives that it is almost impossible to list them all. Some of the most significant that have either been achieved or set in motion include: a stimulus bill, a new regulatory system for Wall Street, a housing recovery plan, an ambitious budget which includes investment in renewable energy and energy saving measures, universal healthcare and education.
There is also a toxic assets disposal plan, a rescue package for Detroit, a timetable for the withdrawal of non-combat troops from Iraq, a new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan including more troops, the closure of Guantanamo Bay, release of memos relating to torture sanctioned by the previous administration, a bilateral agreement with Russia to reduce stockpiles of nuclear weapons and confront proliferation, an initial diplomatic message of goodwill sent to Iran on Nowruz and an agreement with other G20 nations to re-regulate the global economy and beef up the International Monetary Fund’s ability to intervene where countries are struggling. And, of course, he has made a good on his promise to get his children a new dog for the White House.
It is a formidable list. The only major measure missing from it is a new Middle East peace initiative. As there was an Israeli general election during Obama’s first 100 days, this may have prevented any serious movement in that area. We can expect this to be addressed soon, as well as a further diplomatic initiative with Iran following that country’s presidential election on June 12.
Some of what Obama is doing is hugely controversial. The toxic asset plan provoked a furious response from Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman. The proposed closure of Guantanamo Bay and the release of the torture memos continue to exercise former members of George Bush’s administration. Congressional Republicans were almost unanimous is their disapproval of the stimulus bill and continue to fight elements of Obama’s budget.
All this demonstrates that tougher times lie ahead, particularly with regard to big issues such as a more limited defence budget, the perennial battle over healthcare and the proposed cap and trade emissions system. Republicans in Congress are united in opposition. Democrats may be tempted to play it safe and put some distance between themselves and this ambitious President. His popularity may not be so high when they have to fight their own re-election battles.
So the 44th President of the United States has been wise to do as much as he can while his political capital remains intact. Nothing more would have been achieved through caution. And whether they vote for him or not, his boldness has won the respect of my family in Watsonville and millions of people like them. Earning the respect of those who are not necessarily with you? That sounds like a hallmark of leadership.
Anthony Painter is the author of Barack Obama: the movement for change and blogs at www.anthonypainter.co.uk.
