100 Days Analysis Roundup

The end of the first 100 days is almost upon us, and with it the opportunity to discuss those days. Here's a roundup of what, precisely, is being discussed about said days around the web (aside from our own coverage):


Arianna Huffington writes that, judging from his poll numbers, President Obama's first 100 days have gone swimmingly. The stimulus, the national service bill, a less bellicose foreign policy, and the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips all get ringing endorsements from the Huffington Post editor. The bank bailout, handling of Bush-era torture, and Afghanistan policy do not.

Rory Cooper at The Foundry likes Obama's Iraq and Afghanistan policies because, as he sees them, they're continuations of Bush's. But the president failed to issue a stronger response to North Korea's missile launch, Cooper says, and the lesson of the first 100 days is that Obama needs to reorganize his national security priorities.

Walter Shapiro of Politics Daily imagines the first 100 days of President John McCain, and congratulates the oldest first-term president in U.S. history on his surprising rambunctiousness.

Robert Reich says Obama has hit thr ground not running, but sprinting, and that he has executed a delicate balancing act as his aggressiveness--the $787 billion stimulus, his budget, his mortgage plan, his bank plan, easing of Cuba policy, and his message to Iran--have angered the right and made the left uneasy. He'll have to continue the balancing act to find success in the next 100 days, Reich says.

New media experts give WhiteHouse.gov a C+ under the new administration in a new National Journal poll, some questioning the administration's efforts at online transparency.