Toby Harnden: Barack Obama aglow after 100-day honeymoon - just like Carter
[Toby Harnden is the Telegraph's Washington correspondent.]
White House aides have airily dismissed the milestone of President Barack Obama's first 100 days as a "Hallmark holiday", an artificial conceit dreamt up by journalists too lazy to focus on the substance of policy.
Yet, in reality, the new administration has prepared for today's century of Obama days with an intensity that goes beyond the inevitable media fixation with what has been an early gauge of presidents since Franklin Roosevelt's whirlwind start in 1933.
Tonight, Mr Obama will hold a prime-time press conference to mark the moment. An email sent out yesterday by his erstwhile campaign manager, David Plouffe, announced a special 100 days website replete with stories of ordinary folks, rundowns on issues and a snazzy interactive map.
The day has been seized as another opportunity to hone the Obama image, which was carefully crafted and protected during a campaign in which his persona and life story, rather than his policies, led to triumph.
Advisers who publicly mock the theme of 100 days have been discreetly parcelling out made-to-order anecdotes to the press, each one designed to show how decisive, far-thinking or cool under pressure he is.
The enthusiasm with which Team Obama has seized upon the theme says much about the early months of his presidency – the continuation of a campaign in which substance always ran a very distant second to style.
Mr Obama has begun his presidency like a man in a hurry, outlining an astonishingly ambitious agenda with breathtaking confidence at a time when the United States is facing a global economic crisis.
In three months, he has unveiled a $787 billion (£538 billion) economic stimulus plan, ordered the closure of the Guantánamo Bay prison within a year (though he has yet to decide where the inmates will go), committed 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan and drawn up a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.
Operating under the adage that, as his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has said, each crisis is an opportunity, Mr Obama has jumped at the chance to tackle the global downturn by proposing a massive expansion of the American state, doubling the national debt over the next decade.
Abroad, Mr Obama has apologised for American "arrogance"; said that the US has a moral responsibility to rid the world of nuclear weapons; and accepted US responsibility for the worldwide recession.
But outlining an agenda is different from enacting one. In attempting to move on almost every front, Mr Obama could be allowing the scale of his ambition to set him up for a dramatic fall.
There have been some notable missteps. Despite a pre-presidential transition that was hailed as brilliant, he struggled to fill his cabinet, losing his health supremo, Tom Daschle – a bitter blow to his hopes of reforming American health care – and not one but two nominees for Commerce Secretary.
Quite what he has achieved from presenting himself as the personification of a kinder, humbler America remains to be seen. Soon, not being President George W Bush will no longer be enough.
His release of four Bush administration memos allegedly supporting torture made him seem partisan and backward-looking, failing to placate the Left, enraging the Right and demoralising the CIA.
But, in keeping with his aides who revere him, he appears convinced of his own greatness. He wants his name to be uttered in the same breath as those of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and John F Kennedy.
Rather than being an opening gambit or a clever negotiating ploy, it seems clear that his demand for sweeping change is because he wants exactly that. Thus far, many of the superficial signs for him are good. Bush fatigue lingers and, remarkably, a majority of Americans believe the country is on the right track despite the parlous economic situation – a testament to his personal popularity.
The press remains on Mr Obama's side, lapping up stories such as the arrival of Bo the new "First Dog", the White House vegetable patch and the President's BlackBerry, which amounted to little more than extended commercials.
His approval rating is a healthy 63 per cent, the highest of any president after 100 days for more than three decades, and neither his talents as a politician and orator nor the desire of most Americans for him to succeed is in doubt.
The last person to better his early popularity, however, was Jimmy Carter, who scored 69 per cent in 1976...
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
White House aides have airily dismissed the milestone of President Barack Obama's first 100 days as a "Hallmark holiday", an artificial conceit dreamt up by journalists too lazy to focus on the substance of policy.
Yet, in reality, the new administration has prepared for today's century of Obama days with an intensity that goes beyond the inevitable media fixation with what has been an early gauge of presidents since Franklin Roosevelt's whirlwind start in 1933.
Tonight, Mr Obama will hold a prime-time press conference to mark the moment. An email sent out yesterday by his erstwhile campaign manager, David Plouffe, announced a special 100 days website replete with stories of ordinary folks, rundowns on issues and a snazzy interactive map.
The day has been seized as another opportunity to hone the Obama image, which was carefully crafted and protected during a campaign in which his persona and life story, rather than his policies, led to triumph.
Advisers who publicly mock the theme of 100 days have been discreetly parcelling out made-to-order anecdotes to the press, each one designed to show how decisive, far-thinking or cool under pressure he is.
The enthusiasm with which Team Obama has seized upon the theme says much about the early months of his presidency – the continuation of a campaign in which substance always ran a very distant second to style.
Mr Obama has begun his presidency like a man in a hurry, outlining an astonishingly ambitious agenda with breathtaking confidence at a time when the United States is facing a global economic crisis.
In three months, he has unveiled a $787 billion (£538 billion) economic stimulus plan, ordered the closure of the Guantánamo Bay prison within a year (though he has yet to decide where the inmates will go), committed 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan and drawn up a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.
Operating under the adage that, as his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has said, each crisis is an opportunity, Mr Obama has jumped at the chance to tackle the global downturn by proposing a massive expansion of the American state, doubling the national debt over the next decade.
Abroad, Mr Obama has apologised for American "arrogance"; said that the US has a moral responsibility to rid the world of nuclear weapons; and accepted US responsibility for the worldwide recession.
But outlining an agenda is different from enacting one. In attempting to move on almost every front, Mr Obama could be allowing the scale of his ambition to set him up for a dramatic fall.
There have been some notable missteps. Despite a pre-presidential transition that was hailed as brilliant, he struggled to fill his cabinet, losing his health supremo, Tom Daschle – a bitter blow to his hopes of reforming American health care – and not one but two nominees for Commerce Secretary.
Quite what he has achieved from presenting himself as the personification of a kinder, humbler America remains to be seen. Soon, not being President George W Bush will no longer be enough.
His release of four Bush administration memos allegedly supporting torture made him seem partisan and backward-looking, failing to placate the Left, enraging the Right and demoralising the CIA.
But, in keeping with his aides who revere him, he appears convinced of his own greatness. He wants his name to be uttered in the same breath as those of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and John F Kennedy.
Rather than being an opening gambit or a clever negotiating ploy, it seems clear that his demand for sweeping change is because he wants exactly that. Thus far, many of the superficial signs for him are good. Bush fatigue lingers and, remarkably, a majority of Americans believe the country is on the right track despite the parlous economic situation – a testament to his personal popularity.
The press remains on Mr Obama's side, lapping up stories such as the arrival of Bo the new "First Dog", the White House vegetable patch and the President's BlackBerry, which amounted to little more than extended commercials.
His approval rating is a healthy 63 per cent, the highest of any president after 100 days for more than three decades, and neither his talents as a politician and orator nor the desire of most Americans for him to succeed is in doubt.
The last person to better his early popularity, however, was Jimmy Carter, who scored 69 per cent in 1976...