Evaluating Barack Obama's first 100 days? The MSM has jumped all over this. Indeed, they've been doing it for a couple of weeks already. And, hardly a surprise, they've decided he is not only the best president the country's ever had but probably the best national leader ever. Well, at least, since Moses.But there are a few reporters and commentators with different conclusions. Among them are the folks contributing to today's front page stories over at Human Events. I list a few of my favorites, each with a representative passage or two.
* "Judging the First 100 Days" by Congressman Tom Price (Republican from Georgia)
...By any measure, President Obama’s first 100 days have been eye-opening. The President, with a gleeful seal of approval from his liberal allies in Congress, has already managed to bury future generations of Americans beneath a mountain of debt. Sadly, the President’s hallmark policies -- the $787 billion non-stimulus, the meddlesome bailouts, and the budget plan working its way through Congress -- all send a clear signal that attempts at more generational theft will continue for the foreseeable future...
Without a doubt, the President’s big-government plans have already redefined the role of government in everyday life. Those who believe that politicians and bureaucrats are best equipped to spend taxpayer money, run industries, and dictate personal choices will find little to complain about in this agenda. For the rest of us, the policies pursued by our new president in his first 100 days have been disheartening...
* "Obama's First 100 Days" by Herbert London
...The transfer of capital and influence from the private to the public sector has been profound and unprecedented. Americans will be saddled with debt for as long as one can imagine. And, unless I am sadly misguided, governments, including this government, tend to monetize unfunded liability thereby ushering in an inflationary tsunami, notwithstanding elitist arguments that this vicissitude can be managed.
It is also clear that the president has arrogated powers to himself not vouchsafed in the Constitution. For example, he asked for the resignation of the CEO of General Motors, a power in clear violation of Article I Section 8. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is talking about firing bank executives, and the administration is talking openly about taking an ownership interest in GM.
As significant as the assumption of government authority over the economy, is President Obama’s stance on foreign policy. Without any fanfare and almost no news coverage, the president signed a G-20 contract with world leaders for a new world banking system.
This act, The Financial Stability Board (FSB), establishes an economic union with uniform trade regulations and bylaws. It includes the extension of “oversight to all…important financial institutions, instruments and markers…” (my emphasis). The head of FSB, Mario Draghi of Italy said, “every financial institution capable of creating financial risk will be the subject of supervision.” This means that the United States has been inserted into an entangling alliance with Europeans and Asians that compromises national economic independence...
* "Media Sharks No More" by Jed Babbin
...Obama’s future Vice President alerted the media by saying: “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” “I mean that’s a storybook, man," Biden added.
From that moment, the mainstream media were bound men (and women and some things in between). They found rapture in Obama’s every word, and for the rest of 2007 and all through the 2008 campaign the Bush-era media sharks were transmogrified into a pack of tail-wagging puppies not infrequently wetting the floor in excitement over their guy...
* "Radicals Run Obamaland" by Robert M. Engstrom
Not surprisingly, Barack Obama, who was the most liberal member of the last Senate, is now filling his administration with dozens of liberal activists, many of whom have been associated with left-wing policies and organizations. Here, in alphabetical order, is a sampling of the most egregious, so far...
(And then Engstrom gives a brief description of Rosa Brooks, Carol Browner, Jonathon Cannon, Steven Chu, Hillary Clinton, Shaun Donovan, Arne Duncan, Rahm Emanuel, Timothy Geithner, David F. Hamilton, Eric Holder, John Holdren, Lisa P. Jackson, Dawn Johnson, Elena Kagan, Gil Kerilkowske, Harold Knox, Harold Koh, Ray LaHood, Jane Lubcheno, Otis Moss Jr., Janet Napolitano, Susan Rice, Ken Salazar, Kathleen Sebelius, Hilda Solis, and Thomas Strickland. A suggestion? Grab the Pepto before reading through this rogues gallery.)
* "100 Days of Devastatingly Swift Success" by Newt Gingrich
...But all these successful expansions of government at home and retractions of American leadership abroad are merely a prelude to President Obama’s looming crowning achievement: His 2010 budget which remakes our health care system, remakes our energy system, raises taxes and forecasts an amazing $9 trillion increase in the national debt.
As I write this, Democrats in Congress are fashioning a deal to pass the budget’s provisions on health care by preventing Republicans and moderate Democrats from having a voice in the debate.
Think about that. The Obama-Reid-Pelosi political machine is going to pass legislation that fundamentally affects every single American -- as well as 17 percent of our economy -- by cutting the elected representatives of half of all Americans out of the process. If they succeed, the budget will be President Obama’s most enduring -- and devastating -- accomplishment.
* And last but not least (by any means) "It Seems a Lot Longer" by Ted Nugent
...With the economy taking a hard turn south due to the Democrats failing to provide any oversight of Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac over the years, BO then tries to drive the final stake through the free market's heart by getting the Fedzilla dopes in his party to go along with a trillion dollar stimulus plan and multi-year trillion dollar deficit spending. Every time BO or The Weasel mentions the economy, the stock market tanks another 300 points...
BO then heads to Europe where he blames all of the world’s ills on America. Hate America First is his playbook. European nations go ga-ga over that message so they generously agree to send 17 or so more non-combat troops to Afghanistan. BO claims victory while other Americans hang their head in embarrassment. The writers at Mad Magazine surely howl with delight but can't keep up with the hysterics of BO.
Somewhere along the line BO fires the General Motors Chief Executive. Not a single automobile union worker is canned, proving that the automobile unions, not the stockholders, are in charge of the American automobile companies...
BO then bows to a Christian-hating Saudi prince and claims America is not a Christian nation. He tells Muslims they have nothing to fear from America (apparently BO does not know we have 2,000 pound smart bombs with IQ scores above his), but the Muslim community does not reciprocate and they tell BO that he and America do not have anything to fear from them even though Christians living in Muslim countries are routinely brutalized and killed by peace-loving Muslims.
Department of Homeland Insecurity boss, Janet "The New Queen of Mean" Napolitano, issues a report that says veterans, gun owners, and all conservatives need to be watched extra closely because they do not spread palm leaves in front of BO's limousine as he drives by. While the New Queen of Mean is issuing baseless reports, a couple of hundred thousand Americans protest BO's gigantic spending spree on April 15. David "Axe Man" Axelrod, a BO tough guy in the White House who obviously despises the 1st Amendment (and the Second, among others) says the protests are "unhealthy."
BO leaves the country and finds himself shaking hands with Hugo Chavez, one of the world's most egregious America-haters. Chavez gives BO a book on how to hate America in twelve easy steps. BO smiles.
And all in a 100 day heartbeat. If this is kind of hope and change you wanted, you will get plenty more of it. And then the bill will come and we can all play dumb.
Has it only been 100 days? It seems like years. And just think about this: we’re in for another three years and 265 days of this unless some Republicans get a spinal transplant. Can someone please send them a few thousand bottles of testosterone pills?
