President Barack Obama Marks 100 Days With Trip To The Heartland

President Barack Obama Marks 100 Days With Trip To The Heartland

(NSI News Source Info) ARNOLD, Missouri - April 29, 2009: Barack Obama marked 100 days as president Wednesday with a trip to the US heartland, claiming his ambitious agenda of "remaking America" had begun to take hold but warning of much more work ahead to pull the nation out of recession. US President Barack Obama speaks as Senator Arlen Specter and Vice President Joe Biden looks on, April 29, 2009 in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House in Washington, DC. Specter, a veteran Republican senator from Pennsylvania, announced April 28, 2009 that he was switching to the Democratic party. Since taking office January 20, Obama has battled the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, shifted the US military posture in Iraq and Afghanistan, and shown the world a different face of America as the first African-American US president.

As if that were not enough, he now faces a deadly new challenge in the form of a swine flu outbreak that health authorities fear could explode into a global pandemic. Against that backdrop, Obama set out from the White House Wednesday morning for the central state of Missouri for a town hall meeting where he put his own perspective on his first 100 days, a traditional milestone for gauging US presidents' debuts. "We have begun to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off and we have begun the work of remaking America," Obama told a raucous crowd in opening remarks at a town hall meeting in this St Louis suburb. "Now, after 100 days, I'm pleased with the progress we've made, but I'm not satisfied," an upbeat Obama said. "I'm confident in the future, but I'm not content with the present," he added. "Not when there are workers that are still out of jobs, families who still can't pay their bills." Obama's debut -- seen as a success by the majority of Americans, according to several polls released just ahead of the 100-day milestone -- has been marked by the worst economic crisis since the 1930s Great Depression, and what Obama described Wednesday as the administration's "bold and sustained" steps to rein it in. The president unleashed a huge government intervention in the economy with a historic 787-billion-dollar stimulus bill and now has high-stakes environmental and healthcare reforms on the launchpad. Abroad, Obama hit the "reset button" on US foreign policy, reaching out to Muslims and vowing to end decades of enmity with foes Cuba and Iran. He mandated the closure of Guantanamo Bay prison camp, outlawed torture and set a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. He also doubled down in Afghanistan and Pakistan and reversed US denial on climate change. "We've come a long way, we can see the light on the horizon, but we've got a much longer journey ahead," Obama said. Many of the new policies have not sat well with Republicans, who for the first time in eight years control neither the White House nor either chamber of Congress. "We don't have a majority. It's very difficult to pass legislation," Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell lamented. Compounding their woes, senior Republican Senator Arlen Specter announced Tuesday that he was becoming a Democrat, boosting Obama's ability to drive his agenda through the US Congress. Obama's Democratic allies hailed his first months in office, which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said followed the "misguided policies and misplaced priorities" of the Bush administration. "I am encouraged that in the brief time we have had so effective a partner in the White House as President Obama, we have taken so many strong steps, so swiftly, in the right direction and for the right reasons," Reid said. Obama returns to Washington for a nationally televised press conference Wednesday evening when he is certain to be grilled about huge challenges that face the country on many fronts. "I think the American people are less likely to spend a lot of time sitting around Wednesday judging what we've done in our first 100 days, and are more concerned with what we're going to do each and every day going forward," said Obama's spokesman Robert Gibbs, who gave his boss a report card grade of "B plus." But Americans have looked back at Obama's debut, and polls show he still enjoys strong backing among a wide swath of US voters. A survey published Wednesday by Quinnipiac University found that 58 percent of those polled approve of his performance as president, compared to 30 percent who disapprove. That was similar to the 59 percent approval rating Obama garnered in a Quinnipiac survey in early March. Meanwhile, Obama faced the first health crisis of his term, with the country experiencing its first swine flu death since the disease's outbreak in Mexico. At least 91 infections were confirmed across 10 US states as of Wednesday, and after declaring a public health emergency at the weekend Obama pressed Congress to release 1.5 billion dollars in emergency funding. On Tuesday the Senate confirmed Kathleen Sebelius as health and human services secretary, rounding out the president's cabinet amid concerns that many other senior positions remain vacant.