Obama's First 100 Days

Obama's First 100 Days

After 100 days in the Oval Office, President Obama merits a mixed report card, according Ivan Eland, director of the Independent Institute's Center on Peace & Liberty and author of Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty. "Although it is unfair to pass judgment this early on a new president, he can be compared to his predecessors and given interim grades on his various policies," Eland writes.

Eland gives Obama a "B" for accelerating the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, a "D" for escalating U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, a "B" for ending torture and closing Guantanamo and CIA secret prisons, a "B" on accountability in defense spending, and a "D" on social spending. These grades, he stresses, are interim and might improve or plummet during the course of his tenure. "If Obama tries to use remaining taxpayer dollars allocated for bailouts to grab an even bigger government ownership share in the banks," writes Eland, "he will combine an augmentation of the welfare state with the expansion of Bush's outright socialism--earning him an 'FF' in economic management."

Ultimately, Obama should be judged by results, not rhetoric. Writes Eland: "Results should be measured by the degree to which his actions, or his deliberate inaction, contribute to peace, prosperity and liberty."

"Obama's First 100 Days: A Mixed Record," by Ivan Eland (4/27/09)
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=2489

"Don't Judge Obama's Legacy on First 100 Days," by Ivan Eland (San Francisco Chronicle, 4/26/09)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/26/IN4K173MPP.DTL

Partitioning for Peace: An Exit Strategy for Iraq, by Ivan Eland
http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=79

Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty, by Ivan Eland
http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=77

The Empire Has No Clothes: U.S. Foreign Policy Exposed, by Ivan Eland
http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=74

Ivan Eland on C-SPAN2. Interview by Rep. Ron Paul.
http://www.booktv.org/watch.aspx?ProgramId=LW-10226