|
 |
| A proactive president - can Obama, and the American people, keep up? [GALLO/GETTY] |
Allan J Lichtman, a professor of history at American University in Washington DC, talks to Al Jazeera about why the US feels the need to mark the first 100 days of its president's time in office, and how past leaders have fared.
Nobody cared about the first 100 days until the first administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1933, when he passed through congress 15 major bills in his first 100 days in the midst of the Great Depression.
Ever since then, the 100 days has kind of become the benchmark.
Ronald Reagan, who was a transforming conservative president, in his first 100 days, laid out his economic agenda very clearly.
Bill Clinton tried to establish himself as a moderate president although he did become involved with controversies that undermined his first 100 days.
But Barack Obama has accomplished more as a newly elected president in his first 100 days than any other president since Franklin D Roosevelt during the Great Depression.
He has begun the process to close down Guantanamo Bay, he steered through congress the biggest stimulus package in the history of the country and he has set a new direction in US foreign policy.
There have been some disappointments, obviously. He certainly has not changed the culture of Washington - politics are as divided along partisan lines as they ever were.
 |
| Lichtman says Obama's decisions on Afghanistan may return to haunt him |
Another, I think, difficulty that Obama has faced in his 100 days that I think may come back to haunt him, is a very dubious decision to expand the war in Afghanistan.
I think in these difficult times you need the kind of personality that Barack Obama has:
A man who has his priorities straight, who is in charge, who remains calm and unruffled and can come back very quickly from stumbles like some misguided cabinet appointments.
He faces even more daunting challenges in the next several months of his presidency.
|