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Today President Barack Obama ushers in his first 100 days in office. News outlets, blogs, polls and even late night talk show hosts will be dissecting his performance on everything from the economic stimulus package to his efforts in foreign policy. CNN Analyst and ESSENCE.com blogger, Roland S. Martin tells us why he doesn’t believe all the hype and thinks 100 days isn’t reasonable time to fully evaluate a presidency, let alone one that has been plagued with the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression.
This 100 day marker is a total waste of time. Former President Bill Clinton had a horrible first 100 days and yet he still left office extremely popular. It sort of reminds me when my nieces come home with their report cards and get a passing or failing grade. It’s not like I got an A, B, C or D. It makes no sense. All President Obama is doing right now is laying down a foundation, but anything can happen. Look at President George W. Bush. September 11 changed everything. You can sit here and determine right now exactly what’s going to happen. Fine, people want to make a big deal out of it with their national report cards and what not but to me none of it has any barring. His approval rating is up but we don’t know how this is going to turn out.
You know initially the White House wasn’t even going to acknowledge the first 100. Now all of a sudden, we’re having a prime time news conference. Of course, they realize the President’s numbers are really high and they want to take advantage of that. Frankly, I think no one will really be able to look at this man’s performance as President of the United States fairly until the mid-term elections and then the real evaluation comes in four years. Imagine if he had a horrible first two years then all of a sudden things change. Look at George H.W. Bush when he was president. In 1990, his numbers were just through the roof because of the success of the Iraq war. They said there is no way any Democrat could win against him. All the Democrats were saying, I’m not running against that guy. What happened? The economy changed and he had to go back on his pledge and raise taxes. You just can’t sit here and measure somebody on their first 100 days.
Roland S. Martin is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of “Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith” and “Speak, Brother! A Black Man’s View of America.” The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of Roland Martin.