Thirsting for Change: Obama’s First 100 Days

It is difficult to evaluate an administration after only 100 days. George W. Bush, who ended his two terms with one of the lowest grades of any U.S. president, received quite positive evaluations after his first three months in office. The Obama team is still bringing people on board and identifying its priorities. Still, the crises facing the United States and the world require immediate and comprehensive action. And, as no less an authority as Aristotle once put it, well begun is half done.

This report inaugurates our Change Index. Every administration promises great change and must deal with the messes created by its predecessor. In the report, the president scored high marks for his rhetoric. At the level of action, however, the record so far is mixed. In general, the Obama administration has acted cautiously in its foreign policy even as it has moved quickly to institute some far-reaching changes at home.

In our overall evaluation of the first 100 days, we gave the administration a score of 7. President Obama has certainly raised the level of U.S. foreign and domestic policy. Yet, we’re still a long way off from reaching the top.

Click here to read the report.

Grading the First 100 Days

The start of Obama’s first 100 days in office are marked with bailouts, international meetings on climate, contaminated foods outbreaks, scandals, foreclosures, and increases in homelessness and unemployment, providing President Obama ample opportunities to fulfill the changes he promised throughout the campaign.

But are the first 100 days offering change we can believe in?

Building on our Mandate for Change book, on April 27, we will release a hundred day report that evaluates Obama’s progress on many domestic and international issues. The report will also include a scorecard on President Obama’s actions regarding his appointees, recent legislation, executive orders, and spending, as well as his communication with the American people.

As IPS is a “think tank for the rest of us,” we’re seeking your input on how you would grade the performance of Obama administration so far. We’ll use your views as we grade the administration and will highlight the top comments and grades submitted by readers in the report. Comments and grades can be posted below.

Chime in and add your voice to this important evaluation of the administration – and the direction our country is headed.

Commissions, Cuts and Crisis Calls

Mandate author, Barbara B. Kennelly writes about recent congressional efforts to reduce Social Security and Medicare expenditures for Roll Call.

While Congress and the White House continue to consider economic recovery proposals designed to bring our country out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, some deficit hawks are promoting the notion that the short-term costs of the economic downturn and the recovery plan ought to be linked to long-term reductions in Social Security and Medicare. They have characterized expenditures for these critical programs as representing an “entitlement crisis” or a “long-term fiscal crisis.”

Read the entire piece here.

Advocates Call For High-Tech Emphasis In Broadband Expansion

Contributing author to Mandate for Change, Ben Scott, is quoted in an Online Media Daily article discussing the need for responsible tech spending following the passage of the economic stimulus bill.

We need to make sure the money is spent wisely on projects that deliver the biggest bang for the buck,” Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press, said Monday during a conference call with other broadband advocates and reporters.

Free Press is especially concerned that stimulus funds shouldn’t be used to build networks that are “obsolete” because they’re too slow. In a report issued Monday, the organization urged the National Telecommunications and Information Administration–tasked with distributing $4.7 billion in broadband stimulus–to establish speed guidelines for the new networks.

To read more click here.

Does Durban II Matter?

Mandate author, Gerald LeMelle is featured on GRITtv with Laura Flanders in an interview about the Obama administration and the upcoming United Nations Conference Against Racism.

Recently, the Obama Administration announced that it would not participate in the April 2009 United Nations Conference Against Racism – a follow up meeting to the 2001 Conference in Durban, South Africa…Gerald LeMelle, Executive Director of Africa Action, discusses what really happened at the first conference and why the Obama administration’s refusal to attend this time around is troublesome.

Watch the streaming video of the interview here.

The War on Drugs

Contributing author to Mandate for Change and drug-policy expert, Sanho Tree, recently spoke at Howard University in Washington, D.C. about the so-called ‘War on Drugs’. Watch a streaming video of the talk by clicking the link below.

The War on Drugs

Break the Link between Wealth and Political Clout

Concentrated private wealth tilts the political deck against the interests of average families in a variety of ways, mainly because the handful of super-wealthy citizens can easily transform their wealth into political clout. For this reason, the Americans least able to cope during an economic downturn find themselves with little government support, while the CEOs of bailed-out banks and government contractors take in higher pay and larger bonuses than ever before. In order to make the political system more representative and responsive, the next administration should

• Stop rewarding unearned income by reinstating the estate tax and ending preferential tax treatment on capital gains.

• Require government contractors to disclose their top executives’ pay and the gap between executive and worker pay.

• Restore serious progressivity to the federal tax system and subject the assets of the rich, not just the middle class, to taxation.

Author:  Sam Pizzigati, Editor Too Much

GWOT’s End?

Mandate author, John Feffer evaluates the Obama administration’s recent efforts to reform the ‘global war on terror’ in weekly ezine World Beat.

Last week, shortly after being inaugurated, President Barack Obama ended the “global war on terror” (GWOT). Or so The Washington Post reported. The new president countermanded the Bush administration’s extralegal approaches by mandating the closure of Guantánamo within a year, outlawing the use of torture in interrogations, and putting the CIA out of the secret prisons business. Obama announced that he wanted to “send an unmistakable signal that our actions in defense of liberty will be as just as our cause.”

Sounds good. But the Post’s declaration might be just as premature as President George W. Bush’s infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech on the USS Lincoln that signaled the “end” of the Iraq War.

To read the full article click here.

Green Jobs for a Sustainable Economy

One of the major roadblocks that is currently preventing our country from developing a green economy is that, as of yet, there is no central body that is specifically responsible for funding environmentally-friendly infrastructure projects and green jobs. The next administration should establish an Infrastructure Capital Development Bank to provide long-term funding, worker training, and business services for sustainable-economy projects. This bank would promote the manufacturing of equipment and materials needed for a green economy, thus creating more blue-collar jobs.

Author: Jon Rynn, Grist Magazine

Launch a Human Rights Restoration Initiative

The United States needs to restore its leadership role in promoting and protecting human rights both nationally and internationally. Over the past few years the protection of human rights has degraded, and despite the fact that many human rights treaties have recently been signed, many have yet to be fully implemented. In order to make the US a world leader in human rights once again, it should:

• Fully implement and ratify all human rights treaties.
• Develop an economic and social rights agenda to protect housing, health, and education.
• Promote comprehensive Human Rights Education.
• Take into account whether nominations to the judiciary consistently support international human rights law.

Author: Catherine Albisa, National Economic and Social Rights Initiative