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The First 100 Days: Presidential Milestones
Issue date: 4/30/09
Every era has its milestones, and the tenure of the President of the United States is no exception. From the party conventions to Election Day to the inauguration and the States of the Union, the presidency is separated into a series of chronological intervals. Without external context, these periods may not actually mean much, but to historians and the media, such can be used to measure how an administration is progressing. The first of the presidential intervals is the First 100 Days; Obama's 100th day occurred Wednesday, April 29. The First 100 Days is used by analysts to predict how the course of the full term of presidency will be.
President Obama's first three months in office have been highly publicized in the media, with nearly every major news source having a "First 100 Days" segment in their programming or on their Web sites. President Obama made many promises during his campaign, and the media is waiting to see how he carries out on them. One prominent Web site is the St. Petersburg Times' http://www.politifact.com, a 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner that compiles which political promises are carried out and which are broken.
Obama certainly had quite a bit on his plate when he took the office of the president in January: the economy in an all-time low, national security, civil right clashes, health care problems and an ongoing war to deal with. But he promised to take care of all this and more, and he certainly jumped on it immediately and has made a lot of progress even in the first couple months in office. According to PolitiFact, President Obama made 514 promises in his campaign of "hope" and "change." He has already accomplished 27 with seven more under the category of "compromise." These are key milestones in the past 100 days that can give Americans hope for a successful and strong presidency over the next few years.
America did not to wait long for an important event, as it came on Obama's third day as president: the executive order to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. The facility was the site of human rights violations regarding the treatment of prisoners, and the Bush administration had set up military commissions to try the prisoners. Though the order faced setbacks due to an overruling by the military commission judge, it set two precedents for the Obama administration: that the executive branch would take strong direct action against human rights violations, and that it was willing to alter the controversial policies of previous administrations.
President Obama's first three months in office have been highly publicized in the media, with nearly every major news source having a "First 100 Days" segment in their programming or on their Web sites. President Obama made many promises during his campaign, and the media is waiting to see how he carries out on them. One prominent Web site is the St. Petersburg Times' http://www.politifact.com, a 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner that compiles which political promises are carried out and which are broken.
Obama certainly had quite a bit on his plate when he took the office of the president in January: the economy in an all-time low, national security, civil right clashes, health care problems and an ongoing war to deal with. But he promised to take care of all this and more, and he certainly jumped on it immediately and has made a lot of progress even in the first couple months in office. According to PolitiFact, President Obama made 514 promises in his campaign of "hope" and "change." He has already accomplished 27 with seven more under the category of "compromise." These are key milestones in the past 100 days that can give Americans hope for a successful and strong presidency over the next few years.
America did not to wait long for an important event, as it came on Obama's third day as president: the executive order to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. The facility was the site of human rights violations regarding the treatment of prisoners, and the Bush administration had set up military commissions to try the prisoners. Though the order faced setbacks due to an overruling by the military commission judge, it set two precedents for the Obama administration: that the executive branch would take strong direct action against human rights violations, and that it was willing to alter the controversial policies of previous administrations.
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