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Obama pivots from first 100 days to rest of agenda
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-30 09:03

The reward: strong public backing despite a still-staggering economy. An Associated Press-GfK poll shows that 48 percent of Americans believe the United States is headed in the right direction -- the first time in years that more people than not expressed optimism for a brighter future.

Obama pivots from first 100 days to rest of agenda
US President Barack Obama acknowledges applause as he arrives to speak at a town hall meeting held at Fox Senior High School in Arnold, Missouri, April 29, 2009. Today is Obama's 100th day in office. [Agencies]
But most of what Obama has done so far, as would be expected for little more than three months, amounts to no more than a down payment.

The president stressed this theme during his speech and short question-and-answer session in a St. Louis suburb.

"Our progress has to be measured in the results that we achieve over many months and years, not the minute-by-minute talk in the media," he told a friendly crowd at a local high school. "I'm not a miracle worker."

For instance, he has begun redefining the US image around the globe, a combination of his fresh look and diplomatic outreach. But those efforts will take time to bear fruit in the most difficult places, such as Iran, North Korea, Russia, Cuba and the Sudan.

Obama also said he'll close the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But he has yet to confront the tough decisions about where to send the most problematic suspected terrorists being held there.

Most notably, Obama insisted that the massive but short-term economic stimulus that has increased the federal deficit would be unwise without a commitment to belt-tightening and a long-term reshaping of the US economy.

So he has proposed an all-at-once agenda that includes increased education spending to produce a better-trained work force, greater support for renewable energy development, a high-priced system for companies to buy and sell rights to emit dangerous pollutants, a vast expansion of health insurance and new rules to rein in the riskiest Wall Street behavior. He has asked Congress to provide it all by the end of the year.

"Some of the people in Washington have been surprised," Obama said. "They said, 'Boy, he's so ambitious. He's been trying to do so much.' ... But there's no mystery to what we've done. The priorities that we've acted upon were the things that we said we'd do during the campaign."

Democrats in Congress gave Obama a 100-day present by advancing a $3.4 trillion federal budget for next year. The nonbinding budget blueprint, adopted in the House and awaiting a Senate vote later in the day, amounted to a first step in Obama's goal of providing health care coverage for all Americans because it gives Democrats the option of blocking any Republican filibuster on the president's health care plan.

Vice President Joe Biden said health care is "the top of the agenda, the very top" for the president this year. In a conference call with regional reporters, Biden said a broad immigration overhaul, once a top priority for the administration's first 100 days, may not happen this year.