Grading President Obama’s First Day

In direct response to the astute political commentary from the editor of a fashion magazine, I’d like to point out a few things that your average fashion guru might not realize (now, please don’t tell me I can’t wear white sneakers before Easter-or is it after?).

1. Halting the military tribunal process at Guantánamo Bay.
Great idea if all you want to do is make the editor of Vanity Fair happy, but stupid in every other respect. Now Obama’s only got 4 choices: First he can restart the tribunals in 4 months. Second he can have all these guys go through civilian courts in which case they automatically go free because no soldier read them Miranda on the battlefields of Afghanistan, habeus corpus, and in some cases “harsh interrogations.” Third, he can have em shot for being enemy combatants w out uniforms (the reason most insurgents traditionally wear at least a bandanna or something). Lastly, he can admit he fubar’d on day one and restart the tribunals. The option of sending them to another country has been tried and failed.
D-

2. Phoning Arab leaders to discuss the Mideast situation.
This was not exactly a brave or inspiring thing to do: to call all the people who supported Israel’s incursion into Gaza, but-again-it makes an ill-informed propagandist like the editor of Vanity Fair magazine happy. To have really made a difference, Mr Obama would have had to call leaders in Syria, Iran, and Hamas, but he didn’t.
D

3. Freezing salaries for senior White House staffers and implementing semi-strict guidelines to stop the K Street revolving door.
Hardly a big deal since Politico and The Hill both reported that as many as half of the Obama Administration has worked on K Street. This is like closing the gate to the chicken pen after letting in a few hundred fox.
F

4. Embracing openness and an end to “secrecy.”
Great job! Does this mean we get to find out who his campaign donors were? $600 of his $700million dollars was made in either online or unreported donations under $200. Transparency would provide that list. Secrecy means that no one in the United States knows who paid for their President/who their President owes favors.
F

5. Meeting with top military advisers to plan the Iraq drawdown and the reboot of the Afghanistan war.
President Obama did this in December, and the generals told him the 16-month withdrawal of combat brigades was impossible unless many of the combat brigades were re-described as “security units.” NYT had the article. I might have a link. It was funny. To think, President Obama campaigned on this idea of ending the war in Iraq in 16 months. Then even his own advisors said that can’t be done (you just can’t move 16 brigades that fast w/out abandoning their equipment). So, he nuanced his claim to removing all the “combat brigades.” Then, during the transition, he met with the actual military leaders who know what’s going on, and Obama changed his claim again to STARTING in 16 months while leaving “security, logistics, training, and units to fight Al Queda.” Best part about that is it’s EXACTLY what President Bush proposed back in 2006-even before Democrats took office. Oh, but the editor of Vanity Fair thinks this is something new and exciting?
F

6. Convening his economic advisers to discuss the stimulus.
I remember a big press conference weeks ago where they supposedly did this. I also remember months (years?) ago where Obama said he was ready to lead on day one. This isn’t leading, it’s STARTING to lead after claiming to have started weeks/months earlier.
F

7. He re-took the oath of office because he (and the Chief Justice he voted against as a Senator) both flubbed it. Oddly enough, they flubbed it the second time by not using a Bible.
D

8. He was the first President in 56 years/14 inaugurations to ignore the American Legion Ball; a ball held in honor of living Medal of Honor recipients and packed with as many other decorated veterans as possible
F

9. He did nothing for Healthcare reform as he promised he would do on Day One
F

10. He gave a speech (amazingly similar to speeches from the hated George W Bush) calling Americans to unite once again, to national service, to end partisan bickering/opposition for opposition’s sake, and of the 2million people on the National Mall watching, no one picked up their own trash, and thousands boo’d and hissed like partisans at President Bush (something that has never happened before in an inauguration). Then they went around thumping their chests at victory, booing, vandalizing, and waving fists in the air rather than extending open hands as our leader suggested.

F

President Obama is failing