Obama ends first 100 days in White House

PanARMENIAN.Net - U.S. President Barack Obama ends the first 100 days of his administration as he began - dealing with a major crisis, struggling to find Republican support and working with a Senate in flux.



The Obama administration, which was forced to hit the ground running in January to address a battered economy and its toll on the nation's psyche, on Tuesday grappled with fear of the spreading swine flu and the president having to explain a public relations gaffe in Monday's flyover in New York of an airliner used as an Air Force One backup. The flare-ups come just as the president prepares for a summertime debate on Capitol Hill over the details of addressing global warming and health care - the twin hearts of his first-term agenda.



The 100-day point is the traditional mark for evaluating how well a president has done on his honeymoon, the period scholars and historians say Congress and the public give a new president to get set up and push his agenda. Public opinion polls show it's been a successful period. Mr. Obama has won high approval ratings, and the percentage of voters saying the country is on the right track has risen.



In keeping with his open style, Mr. Obama will hold the third press conference of his young administration on Wednesday. All three have been prime-time affairs, and two of them have been preceded by town halls - underscoring the president's intent to make sure he does not become captive to inside-the-Beltway chatter or the media filter.



Mr. Obama comes to the 100-day milestone having secured the last member of his Cabinet in Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who was confirmed by the Senate Tuesday on a 65-31 vote. Her confirmation ends a bumpy ride in which several Cabinet nominees withdrew for failure to pay their full tax bills.



Outside of Congress, Mr. Obama has been just as active, winning praise for going far beyond his predecessor in transparency and openness, though Mr. Obama has sometimes fallen short of his own promises in those areas.



The 44th president also made broad use of executive powers, issuing 19 executive orders, which is a modern record. He issued the directives to increase federal funding for stem cell research and to push federal construction projects to favor union workers - undoing Bush administration policies and generating criticism of political "payback."



Mr. Obama has hosted eight heads of state at the White House, made three foreign trips, attended four multilateral summits and met in some form with 44 foreign leaders, The Washington Times reported.