The senior advisors of the President refer to the observance of his first one hundred days in office as a "Hallmark Holiday".

Still, the reference to a faux holiday did not stop the mainstream media from celebrating the presidents first few months in office with another burst of favorable publicity.

So, is all the favorable media of Barack Obama's short time in office justified? Lets evaluate the policy direction of the Obama administrations first one hundred days. The goal is to find a slogan for the Hallmark Holiday.

First, it is necessary to set the record straight on many of the dubious partisan claims, political labels and exaggerations concerning Obama's first one hundred days. Since the economy was in crisis when he took over, its too soon to evaluate the outcome of the federal governments intervention in the banking and automobile industries.

As a result, lets take Obama at his word that he does not want the government to run companies for the long term in the private sector. Hence, the politically charged words from the right like socialist, communist and Marxist will not be used here.

In addition, it should not be assumed that Barack Obama or his current policies are as popular as the mainstream media and the political left would like you to believe. In fact, Obama's approval ratings are pretty much in line with other Presidents approval ratings after one hundred days in office.

Still, there are substantial policy initiatives that the President has championed in the last three months that will define his Presidency. Its very clear after his recent European trip that foreign policy for the next four years will try to engage America's enemies rather than confront them. Foreign policy carrots will be everywhere but finding effective enforcement sticks may prove to be a difficult task for this administration in the next four years.

North Korea is an excellent example of the limitations of the foreign policy based only on engagement. The history of international appeasement of that nuclear regime has created problems for the global community for more than twenty years.

Iran has also been actively engaged by the international community for more than a decade but despite multiple rounds of United Nations Sanctions, that rogue nation is close to becoming a nuclear power today. The lesson history teaches in foreign policy is that peace is achieved through strength not just engagement and unending diplomacy.

In domestic policy, government spending is currently out of control and budget deficits continue to rapidly grow. The Presidents current budget projection assumes that the economy will grow at a rate of 3-4% growth in 2010 and beyond. Its a rate of economic growth that would mark an incredible recovery from the 6% contraction in the first quarter of this year.

But, the President also intends to let the Bush tax cuts run out, spend more money to create a national health care system, pass a huge environmental tax (Cap and Trade) that will effect everyone and increase income taxes on high income wage earners just as the economy begins to recover.

The truth is that outside of the creative math of the partisans in the White House the budget numbers don't add up and there is no realistic plan to make the difficult political cuts in federal spending to avoid a multi trillion dollar future federal deficit. The economic lesson from history is that higher taxes, and huge federal government budget deficits leads directly to inflation, and future anemic economic growth.

So, an appropriate slogan for Barack Obama's first hundred days in office comes from the words of Sir Winston Churchill. Churchill once said that" those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

Its a slogan that is appropriate on a card marking Barack Obama's Hallmark Holiday. If you want a historical, political precedent, look no further than the administration of Jimmy Carter, the last Democrat, who was a one term President.

http://www.eworldvu.com