Did Obama’s First 100 Days Meet Your Expectations?

It will be interesting to see how the media spins the president’s first 100 days in office, but will come as no surprise if Democrats are deemed to be more satisfied than Republicans with the “results” so far. Don’t be surprised if some Democrats are also deemed to be more disappointed than Republicans.

President Obama is presiding over the most emphatically liberal Democratic agenda in our nation’s modern history. He has taken steps to dramatically grow government and is proposing to spend money like it’s going out of style. He justifies his radical moves by claiming it’s the only way to undo the economic peril left by the previous administration. He has used that assessment to effectively exclude Republicans from important budgetary and other legislative matters so far. Democrats should be delighted, but are they getting what they bargained for from team Obama?

Most Democrats believed Obama was going to change the corrupt and special interests that have heretofore characterized national politics. They also expected him to rise above partisan politics for the greater good and involve people of integrity in his new and transparent administration. Instead, the president’s first 100 days has shown his willingness to set unilaterally (with his democratic and liberal congress) long term, financially irreversible and profound strategic directions for our nation. Transparency seems to have vanished as a general objective but has been used as a weapon for political expedience to embarrass his opposition, such as to punish the Bush administration for war crimes. His cabinet nominations have been drawn from the same pool of tainted politicians that his administration was supposed to eliminate. So much for cleaning up old-style Washington politics.

Furthermore, the fiscally-conservative Democrats and Independents that bought into the moderate, centrist persona that Obama conjured up to win the election are still recovering from the whiplash of him darting to the left soon after his inauguration.

Most Republicans saw that head fake coming and probably feel they got what they expected from an Obama presidency, even if they’re now horrified with how the nation is being managed. The good news for them is that so far Obama continues to be a talker and not a doer, and given his penchant for popularity he may change directions if the political tea leaves so dictate.

Obama’s inaction may also be bad news for the nation. If Obama doesn’t take definitive action soon to put us on a path to economic prosperity, our American goose may be cooked. We’ve gotten plenty of lip service about change, but only after the details are worked out and actually implemented will we know if it’s change for its own sake or change we can believe in.