Thursday, April 30, 2009

OBAMA's First 100 Days-'Pleased, not Satisfied'




JONATHAN BEALE: TERROR TACTICS

They were among his first big decisions - to close Guantanamo, shut down the CIA's secret prisons, and end the intelligence agency's "enhanced" interrogation programme.
In one sense, they had an immediate result - breaking with the Bush administration and improving America's tarnished global image.
But 100 days on, the goal of closing down the detention centre at Guantanamo still seems some way off, and the decision to denounce the past techniques of the CIA is kicking up a political storm.
First Guantanamo - so far Britain has taken back Binyam Mohammed and France has taken another, which still leaves around 240 detainees.
At the time of writing, US Attorney General Eric Holder is travelling Europe trying to persuade countries to take some more.
A number of governments first want to see how many detainees America itself will take.
Finding a home for a handful will be the easy part; what to do with around 100 detainees from Yemen, more difficult.
Send them back and Dick Cheney will see more proof that this administration is weak on terror.
The rush to close Guantanamo, and to denounce the CIA's past has left this administration exposed on national security.
For Barack Obama the bottom line is standing up for America's principles. For many Republicans it's all about keeping the country safe.
You get a real sense of the dilemma in the row over the release of the CIA "torture" memos.
The president is now caught between the human rights and civil liberties lobbies, who are demanding prosecutions on the one hand, and members of the intelligence agencies - past and present - who feel betrayed on the other.
President Obama may have thought coming clean was the best policy. But in reality, he's now going to be spending the next 100 days - probably more - arguing over how much of America's dirty laundry should be shown to the rest of the world.
All the while, Dick Cheney is primed and waiting to say, "I told you so," if one of these decisions backfires and does make America less safe.

RAJINI VAIDYANATHAN: FIRST FAMILY

The first 100 days of the Obama presidency have been about more than just a president - they have told the story of the first African-American family in the White House, a very young one at that.
The interest in the First Family has been as much a part of the story as the president's policies.
The interest in Michelle Obama as a separate entity, and the addition of a White House pet, Bo the dog, are testament to that.
The Obamas have tried to portray themselves to ordinary Americans... as a family people can relate to - be it Mrs Obama's credit crunch chic when she chooses to wear high street clothes, or her call to Americans to plant their own organic vegetables, just as she is doing in the White House garden.
Of course their status and the trappings of power mean they're anything but ordinary, but Mrs Obama is always keen to point out that she has to juggle the demands of motherhood and work like anyone else.
The juxtaposition to all of this is that the First Family are the biggest celebrities in the world - Stevie Wonder played in their house and A-listers are queuing up to meet them.
As Barack and Michelle Obama sashayed down the red carpet at Downing Street for a G20 dinner, you could've mistaken them for an Oscar night entry - the papparazzi are always close by.
But almost all of the photos we see of the family, be it the children's swing in the garden or the playful pictures of them walking the First Dog Bo, are carefully orchestrated.
The high approval ratings for both Mr and Mrs Obama show that the love affair the American public have with the First Family is still going strong.
MAX DEVESON: APPROVAL RATINGS

Barack Obama's honeymoon is over - but not so you'd notice.
His approval ratings were pretty high at the beginning of his presidency, and have sunk only slightly as he reaches his 100th day in office.
While individual pollsters' results vary, they all indicate the same trend: the number of people expressing approval of Mr Obama has decreased somewhat since January, while the number of people expressing disapproval has risen.
And the growth in disapproval has been sharper than the decrease in approval.
Clearly some of those who - perhaps carried away by the pomp and ceremony of inauguration day - initially expressed their support for the new president have revised their views on closer scrutiny of his actual policies.
On average, Mr Obama's support has dropped by around 10 percentage points, while disapproval is up by some 15 points.
That said, Mr Obama's approval rating has remained essentially unchanged since early March.
The ABC/Washington Post poll has been the most favourable to Mr Obama. It gave him an approval rating of 80%-15% around inauguration day, falling to 68%-26% in its most recent survey.
Rasmussen has been the least positive for the president: it had him at 65%-30% in January, and 55%-44% today.
Gallup's results have been somewhere in the middle. According to their polls, Mr Obama had a 67% approval rating in January, which dropped to 61% earlier this month, but sprung back up to 65% on his 100th day in office.
All three polls indicate that Mr Obama still has the support of the majority of the country as he heads into his next 100 days.

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