Obama’s first hundred days have come and gone, and as with all Presidents, now is the time when the honeymoon period comes to an end and the President has to walk the walk, in earnest, because he is no longer being paid to talk the talk. All of the media talking heads are reviewing Mr. Obama’s first three months in office, as well they should, because he promised us a change in how Washington D.C. is run. To this point, regretfully all I have seen is more of the same.

Indeed, to begin with, no one can argue this point – a President is only as good as the people he appoints to serve with him. Insofar as President Obama’s appointees are concerned, I give the man the grade of D. In attempting to reach out to the other side and demonstrate an administration of bipartisanship, Mr. Obama has brought to his cabinet, at best, mediocrity. As with a computer; trash in, trash out. So far, mediocrity in has brought the American people a mediocre administration. Grade for change in Washington: D-.

The war in Iraq and Afghanistan have, for all intents and purposes, been put in neutral. It seems as if news from the front, of both wars, suddenly became non newsworthy as Mr. Obama took office. The same loss of life, for which President Bush was condemned, now no longer seems to cling, like garbage, to the new President despite his promise to bring the troops home and end our involvement. Apparently, Mr. Obama campaigned on the issue without a full understanding of the issue. And so the conflict continues, and lo and behold, Mr. Obama will most likely escalate our involvement in the near future. Promise one grade: D.

What about our economic spiral into Hell? Housing prices continue to fall, bank and mortgage credit, which we were supposed to have loosened up with our billions in tax dollars, is still tight and retail sales continue to fall as more and more Americans are fired or laid off from their jobs. Mr. Obama, as did his predecessor, has poured billions into the economy and still, it continues to move downward. Could it be that his appointees to Treasury, along with the Fed holdovers, are treating symptoms rather than the disease? Feigning a rescue by trying to socialize banking and the auto industry is a rather poor attempt at priming the pump of our economy. Even Joe No One on the street can see the crude attempt at a government takeover of business.

I am reminded of a stimulus bonus I received after leaving the armed forces in 1972. It was just before the election, and President Nixon could not wait until the votes had been cast to buy a few more. Well, all of this stimulus money that is being printed for our use is nothing but a delaying tactic. For goodness sake, the government cannot even run its own affairs in the black, how does it expect to run the banking and auto industry any better? Chrysler may avoid bankruptcy, Ford wanted nothing to do with TARP funds and GM is now a shadow of its former self and soon to be bankrupt unless its bondholders capitulate and take worthless stock for their bonds. Do you remember the old saying, ” As GM goes so goes the nation?” Well, that is truer now than it was when GM was at its peak, building automobiles that deteriorated every three years.

The major banks are already in so much debt that it will take a crafting of new accounting magic to allow them to run without government interference, and the value of housing continues to plummet, despite our national debt rising to an all time high. Forget a forging of new industry here in America. We are a service nation today, and the Obama administration just does not seem to recognize that fact. Grade on the economy: D+.

Then we have Mr. Obama’s plans for health care. Well, if there was not a better time to discuss this subject along with our screwed up “immigration policy,” or lack thereof, now is the time. We are in the midst of a potential pandemic of, and let’s be politically correct, “South of the Border Influenza.” Yes, some school children vacationing in Mexico may have brought it back, but Mexico was still the source. Do our elected officials honestly believe that a third world nation, with issues related to cleanliness, healthcare, lack of infectious disease oversight and all the other problems expected with a third world nation, can have cross border ties with the U.S. and not create health issues here? Why even inspect food coming from south of the border, if you are not going to inspect all the issues related to health and infectious disease? Do you think that the border police are turning back non citizens who appear to be sick? NO. Has our border patrol slowed down the importation of Mexican products? NO. Has the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare done anything about the potential of transference of the virus to the U.S. from outside the country? NO. In this case, the immigration issue and the health care issue go hand in hand.

I doubt if many of you know anything about the pandemic of 1918 – the deadliest plague in history. By the time that pandemic faded away in 1920, it would kill more people than the European Plague of the 1300’s, better known as the Black Plague, and more than AIDS has killed today. Knowing the seriousness of a pandemic influenza strain, what have we done to restrict its spread? Nothing. Wash your hands and…. wash your hands. Building up stockpiles of anti-viral vaccines means nothing. Generic vaccines cannot keep up with viral mutations and this virus will, as do most other viruses, mutate. We may have seen the virus at its peak or we may have another all out health care crisis, in which millions die. It is not predictable. Therefore, why have we done little to nothing to protect ourselves?

American hospitals can barely handle the general yearly attack of influenza, especially among our elderly and our immune compromised. Imagine what would happen with a full blown influenza pandemic. Imagine, if you will, what our health system would do if Obama limited access to care so that everyone, citizen or non citizen, had an equal opportunity to take a bite of our health care apple in time of crisis. Imagine.

And yet, having done nothing about immigration, having done nothing about run away insurance costs, having done nothing about the uninsured Americans who are taking it in the rear because rare resources are being abused by those who are not even supposed to be here in the first place, and you have Obama’s health care policy. Grade: D-.

Do you remember the movie “Wag the Dog?” Do you wonder why the Obama administration suddenly, in the midst of our economic / housing crisis, in the midst of foreign war, in the midst of having done absolutely nothing insofar as his campaign promises are concerned, suddenly has become the bestest friend of the detainees of GITMO, and the enemy of all those in the Bush administration who used what ever techniques were necessary to prevent another 9 – 11? Taking the attention away from an administration which has either done nothing or has bungled what it has done, and turning that attention toward the last administration, is a perfect example of that movie. He may have fooled others, but it has not fooled me.

Yes, he has only had 100 days. Yes, he inherited a lot of problems. Yes, he still may be able to get things done, especially now that he has a turncoat senator who feared losing his seat in Congress and a potential senator who could not make it as a comedian or talk show host. However, the future does not appear all that good for those of us who promote Capitalism, the Constitution and a system of government “of the people, by the people, and for the people,” rather than one which is interested only in a government of elitists. Hope still springs eternal in the breast, but at the moment, I am having indigestion.

Do you remember having to take a report card home to your parents, knowing that you were in deep doo doo? I doubt if, given the bias of our media, that this report card will ever see the light of day.

JLK