When they unleash the "first hundred days" summaries, what will we be told?

Written by: Tom Hayes on Apr 18, 2009 8:12 PM EDT

Linked to groups: DFA Blog Network, Blog For America

"...we simply can't afford to perpetuate a system in Washington where politicians and bureaucrats make decisions behind closed doors with little accountability for the consequences."

With that simple declaration, U.S. President Barack Obama debunked yet another myth the GOP has tried to perpetuate, positioning the Democratic party as leaders in the fight to get back to a smaller, more efficient government.

The President, enjoying high approval ratings during his first quarter in office for his handling of diplomatic challenges and economic chaos, has named  Jeffrey Zients as the nation's first, "Chief Performance Officer."

The diplomacy has been slightly to the fore this week, as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who had expelled the U.S. envoy to Caracas last year in a dispute with the Bush administration, evidently warmed to the changes signalled early in the week by Obama's new approach to Cuba - easing parts of the long-standing embargo. Chavez told Barack Obama publicly, "I want to be your friend."

Obama stressed the opportunity for new partnerships as he spoke in Trinidad/Tobago, from addressing poverty and the economy in the hemisphere, to revolutionizing energy use - a clear reminder to OPEC nations that he intends to reduce their largest market. He also noted that his administration is "making it a priority to ratify the Illicit Trafficking in Firearms Convention as another tool that we can use to prevent this from happening," despite vocal domestic opposition from reactionaries who fear it signals a change in their Consitutionally assured right to bear arms.

Less than three months into his term Obama, not willing to be hampered by the rhetoric that has seemingly dominated U.S. relations during the early part of the century, has extended his hand in friendship, and two of the western hemisphere's harshest critics of U.S. policy have unclenched their fists and signalled a desire to de-escalate and cooperate.

Some reports suggest that despite these successes and his warm reception at the Summit of the Americas, Barack Obama is under pressure to do more about Cuba in particular. Yet Raul Castro has just made a speech in which he said that Cuba is ready to talk to the U.S. about virtually every topic, explicitly including political prisoners which has been one of the major sticking points for decades.

I think when the inevitable flood of "first 100 days" summaries come out, the marks are going to be better than any in recent memory. There's a lot of work to do, particularly on the President's big three priorities (Education, financial and economic reform featuring green jobs, and Health Care reform) but the administration is clearly working in high gear. Most of the doom and gloom will come from domestic detractors, and much less from elsewhere in the western hemisphere where we're clearly seeing increasing cooperation for the first time in nearly a decade.

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