1st 100 Daze...

So, according to the talking heads on the news, Barack Obama's administration is closing in on its' first 100 days. These 100 days are seen as a bench-mark for how the future of the administration might be. I'm not so sure about that. I think the 100 day mark is not an indicator for anything, except the passage of 100 days.

Take, for example, the George W. Bush administration. I didn't vote for him, & I didn't think he had what it took to be the president. However, I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. I wanted him to prove me wrong. And he almost did.

During his first 100 days, he rescinded a lot of good things the Clinton administration did. But I was still going to give him the benefit of the doubt. Then 9-11 happened. Initially, I was totally surprised with how well W seemed to be handling the situation. He seemed to be showing restraint. He seemed to be doing what a president should, reassuring the nation. It seemed like I'd been totally wrong about him. That was until he started talking about going into Iraq.

We were involved in a war in Afghanistan in which we were trying to find Osama bin Laden. He's the guy whom we had been told had planned & organized the 9-11 attacks. At one point, it looked like we had him, but he escaped. I didn't blame W for that (not then anyway) because things like that happen. But when he started up about Iraq & Saddam Hussein, I was like, "What the hell did Iraq have to do with this?"

Everything I could find about Iraq & 9-11 pointed to.... nothing. Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11. Even the news, initially, was saying that. But when people like me started raising the same questions I had, the W administration came out with their, "You're either with us, or against us"
BS. I noticed that the bulk of the news outlets started reporting what came from the White House as truth. They didn't even seem to be checking any facts or sources. It was like being inside the book 1984.

Well now we've been out of that administration for 100 days. We now know (at least most of us do) that W's administration had no reason to go into Iraq. Even though I agree Saddam needed to be deposed, that was not, and still is not, our job. Even Bush said he wasn't about nation building, but he ended up being about nation building in Iraq. I've not seen anything that proves this, but I think he did it to shore up his father's legacy. Either way, a lot of people died and are maimed for life, for no good reason. And where's bin Laden? Still on the loose somewhere.....

Anyway, back to Obama. He inherited a huge mess. The mess didn't get made overnight, it took eight years to create. So it won't be cleaned up overnight either, but I hope it won't take 8 years. Barack seems to be working hard to get things turned around. To me, I think I can see some small things changing for the better. He seems like a good guy too. I'll admit I was reluctant to back him at first. It was mainly due to the experience issue, just like with W. I'd been burned on that before & I was worried about history repeating itself. To me it doesn't matter if the President is Democrat or Republican. He just needs to follow the will of the people at large & not pander to special interest or religious groups.

I'll admit that I'm not too surprised to see some Republican folks already doing/saying stuff like "we're worse off now that under Bush," "I can't wait until Obama's out of office." Jeez people! Give the man a chance! He just might be the best president in 50+ years. Of course, he could be turn out to be the worse too. But you'll never know until you see what he can do. And just because he's part of a different party than yours doesn't mean that he's automatically bad. I gave W a chance back in 2001; he totally showed me how bad he was, but I did give him more than 100 days. I was fairly ok with him until he started up about invading Iraq.

Anyway, let's not be too quick to judge Obama or anyone else. Give them a fair chance. I think we should be able to see where things are heading in about 6 months. That's my take on it.... :)