The First 100.

President Obama’s 100-day mark has come and gone with much fanfare, dozens upon dozens of articles (both, praising and criticizing him) from around the country and assessments from all over the world. All of this attention has prompted many to label the 100-day mark as overrated and insignificant.

I humbly disagree, especially in the case of President Obama.

You can say or think what you will of President Obama and his policies, however, you cannot criticize his willingness to make things happen in Washington. This was something that I questioned about him as he entered office. I did not know if he wanted to be a serious politician or someone that thought of himself more as a celebrity. Well, the former is certainly the case.

That is about where the praise ends, however.

While he has been incredibly active in his little time as Commander in Chief, his activity has been quite detrimental to, not only this country’s present, but its future as well.

This is especially true in the two most important issues facing our country today: our national security and our economy.

Let’s discuss national security first.

Actually, I take back what I said a few lines above as I think President Obama has done a pretty good job in Iraq in Afghanistan. He has stayed the course with the Bush plan to leave an American presence in the country until 2011, while starting a slow drawdown in the number of troops stationed there. Truthfully, I was rather worried about him sticking to his campaign promise of withdrawing right away, so this has been a welcomed development.

Additionally, he has showed some firmness in Afghanistan and committed to a troop surge there, all the while staying tough on Pakistan. Both actions were the right moves in my opinion.

While he has been strong on those two issues, I cannot, for the life of me, understand his approach to the nuclear weapon issues in North Korea and Iran. His impotence in these two separate issues could lead to a global destabilization, widespread nuclear proliferation and the propping up of additional, rogue and despotic regimes around the world. Couple that with his willingness to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp without a viable option as to what to do with the prisoners and we have a president that does not understand the grave threats to our country…not a good thing when we are at war.

His economic track record has been even worse.

His reckless spending from the spending bill with 9,000 earmarks to his $1.5 trillion deficit for this year, the governmental control he has established in the banking and automotive industries and his misuse of TARP fund management will potentially cripple us financially for decades

Then there’s the…

Air Force One Photo op over Manhattan-Indefensible

The buddy-buddy moments with Hugo Chavez-Troubling

His inability to give any statements without a teleprompter-Frightening

The lack of discipline he exhibits when making off-the-cuff statements (how companies shouldn’t go to Las Vegas in tough economic times for meetings or conventions, thereby hurting an already slumping travel and tourism industry)-Irresponsible

Pushing Congress to quickly pass the Stimulus Bill (without many of them reading it), then taking a three-day, Valentine’s day weekend with the First Lady-Arrogant

His cabinet and senior leadership nominations being wrought with scandal and controversy-Careless

The release of CIA interrogation information-Inexcusable

The comment about the Special Olympics-Awful

His willingness to let Russia broker a deal with Iran over nuclear weapons-Unbelievable

His lavish, $50 million inauguration-Again, arrogant

Not the best start, now is it?

Here’s to the next 1,360 (and not 2,820) being much, much better…although I’m not very optimistic about that.

That’s all for now folks. Until next time, take care and be well.

-John