By Askia Muhammad
WASHINGTON (FinalCall.com) - About the worst thing his harshest progressive critics have to say about President Barack Obama's first 100 days in office is that he's nothing more than a “Black Bill Clinton.”
But with that, most of them concede: “At least he's not George W. Bush.”
While April 29th officially marked Mr. Obama's 100th day in office, his supporters are unrestrained in ticking off what they claim as his “victories.”
But with that, most of them concede: “At least he's not George W. Bush.”

While April 29th officially marks Mr. Obama's 100th day in office, his supporters are unrestrained in ticking off what they claim as his “victories.”
The symbolism of the first 100 days in office is important because of the record of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who won the election of 1932, after the great stock market crash of 1929 when the country was suffering during the Great Depression.

Just as Mr. Obama's party did in 2008, in 1932 Mr. Roosevelt's party decisively swept congressional elections across the nation, and he entered office with unprecedented political capital.
People all across the political spectrum were demanding dramatic action, and Mr. Roosevelt responded with a package of programs in the first 100 days of his administration—then from March 4 to June 13, 1933. During those 100 days, Congress granted President Roosevelt's every request. That package is now known as “The New Deal.”
While not necessarily portraying Mr. Obama's success in Roosevelt-like proportions, many analysts give his performance high marks. “I think he's doing fine,” Dr. David Bositis, senior research fellow at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies told The Final Call concerning President Obama's first 100 days.
“I think he's dominating his opponents. I wish I could say for certain that the economy's going to turn around quickly, but it was very bad when he took over, and it's probably going to take some time.

“In terms of Black folks, it's pretty much the same as everybody else. What everybody needs right now is the economy to turn around. Now he can't do that all on his own, but I think he's done a very good job so far,” Dr. Bositis said.
Those who actively supported the Obama campaign are even more enthusiastic. “Well, I'm just absolutely ecstatic about the breathtaking speed at which President Barack Obama has been working, not only to make things better, but to correct problems from the past eight years before he became president,” Dr. E. Faye Williams, president of the National Black Women's Political Congress, told The Final Call.

“In his very first week, women were really excited because he dealt early with the Lilly Ledbetter Bill, for fair pay for women—equal work for equal pay. That was really special to us, and let women know that he's really concerned about the challenges we face in our society.” But on that labor front, some critics complain that the president appears to have forsaken the Employee Free Choice Act, which may now be stalled on Capitol Hill.

Ironically however, some of President Obama's staunchest critics are troubled by both the substance, but even more, by the style of his success. “It's funny, I don't think he has made any mistakes, and he hasn't done anything that is unpredictable from the point of view of those who got him there,” Dr. Jared Ball, assistant professor of communications at Morgan State University, and onetime Green Party presidential candidate told The Final Call. “Unfortunately, everything that I see him doing is kind of predictable:
“He's continuing the war in Afghanistan and extending it. He's increased the military budget. He's leaving 50,000 troops in Iraq, and leaving the largest embassy in the world in Iraq. He hasn't said a word about the private contractors who are doing more of the military work than the military, so they'll all still be in Iraq,” Dr. Ball continued.

“He has basically updated (President Ronald) Reagan's trickle-down economics theory, which I thought was more or less discredited even among mainstream economists, by the stimulus package, which is just designed to give public money to private corporations who will then hire a few people, to give them enough wages to turn around and spend it right back with those same private entities. So it is just a big public subsidy of private business.”

The economy today is not as desperate as it was in President Roosevelt's time, and cannot be turned around in a short time, according to Dr. Bositis, who points out that 76 years ago, there was a slow recovery. “The things that Roosevelt did during his first 100 days didn't in any way, shape or form end The Depression,” Dr. Bositis said.
“As a matter of fact, Roosevelt took office in 1933, and probably the low point of The Depression was in 1937. So, Roosevelt didn't take office, do a bunch of things in his first 100 days and then turn things around. Things didn't really turn around until World War II, so I don't think there's a direct comparison there.