Obama's First 100-Days: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

President Obama has been working in the Oval Office for 100 days now--well, he's been on the road for a great many of them but I digress. Let's grade him on his abilities thus far.

First, the good:

-He decided to keep Defense Secretary Robert Gates on to ensure that we have someone with a military background, intelligence and maturity running the Iraq War and the war in Afghanistan. I guess he could have made Leon Panetta the SecDef since he knows as much about defense as he does about the CIA--not a damn thing on both counts.

-He released the "torture" memos. This would count as bad or even ugly since it will set back our intel-gathering efforts decades but it did light a fire under Cheney and has forced Obama to make a decision on whether he would release the rest that show that water boarding worked and saved hundreds of lives. Cheney requested them released, now the ball is in Obamas court.

-He hasn't closed Gitmo, we still have enough of a presence in Iraq to sustain our gains and he has beefed up the operations in Afghanistan where the current battle against al-Qaeda is taking place after forcing them out of Iraq.

-He has continued to decapitate the leadership of al-Qaeda in Pakistan using Predator drones. It's an effective strategy developed under Bush and has kept us safe.

The Bad:

-The TARP fiasco. It's a jumbled mess whereby we threw money out, have no idea how it's being spent, it hasn't helped and now the government won't take it back because they like the idea of nationalizing industry.

-The porkulus bill. It was nothing but a sop to Democratic senators and congressmen who could rain down money on their constituencies and hold on in the next election. It was written by Pelosi in concert with the most corrupt congress we've seen in decades. It was woefully short on actually providing any stimulus and is ripe for corruption on a scale that was unfathomable just a half-year ago.

-Cabinet selection madness. He vowed to not have lobbyists working for him and has more than Bush ever dreamed of. He nominated a tax cheat to head Treasury and has had numerous others bail because they had tax problems. If this isn't the epitome of amateurism, i don't know what is.

The Ugly:

-Bowing to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. The press went nuts when Bush held his hand but Bush never showed subservience that would signal to the Arab world that we are truly weakened. Obama did just that.

-The Gordon Brown gift kerfuffle. How pathetic that our greatest ally gives us a pen carved from a anti-slaving ship and Obama gives him DVD's that don't even work in Britain? For crying out loud, he gave the Queen a friggin' I-Pod. Plus, he tossed a bust of the greatest and most-pro-American statesman to ever live out the Oval Office door the day he arrived.

-Glad-handing with despots and thugs. Obama went to a summit featuring such America haters as Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega and sat through diatribes about the evil of America without saying anything. He accepted a book from Chavez that blames the US for all of South America's ills and blamed America for guns in Mexico. Next he'll blame us for AIDS and excessive gas from eating broccoli.

-His European America Suck tour. He wowed the leftist populations and pissed off the leaders. Effective strategy indeed. He made us more of a pariah than Bush ever did.

So all in all, it's been a nightmare 100-days. The honeymoon has been waning and now people will not be so apt to give him the benefit of the doubt. The media has been compliant but we are seeing some break out and point out that the emperor has no clothes on occasion. Let's hope the nation is still standing a hundred days from now.