First 100 Days of Barack Obama's Presidency - Media Coverage

Media Coverage

Despite his attempt to downplay its significance, Obama's first 100 days were highly anticipated ever since he became the presumptive nominee. Several news outlets, such as Fox News, CBS News, have even created special portals dedicated to covering the subject. Commentators have weighed in on challenges and priorities within the fields of domestic and foreign policy, on economic issues and on the environment. CNN lists a number of economic issues that "Obama and his team will have to tackle in their first 100 days", foremost among which is passing and implementing a recovery package to deal with the ongoing financial crisis. In fact, CNN is among those news outlets that has a dedicated portal for the coverage of Obama's first 100 days. Even MSNBC.com, which does not have a dedicated portal, acknowledges the notability of the first 100 days by including it in the titles of its stories. BBC World Service released the results of an opinion poll of more than 17,000 people in 17 countries on Obama's first day in office that showed that 67% anticipated that Obama would strengthen U.S. relations abroad. The most optimistic respondents were Italians and Germans, 80% of whom thought U.S. relations with the rest of the world would improve under Obama.

Clive Stafford Smith, a British human rights lawyer, has expressed hopes that the new president will close Guantanamo Bay detention camp in his first 100 days in office. After aides of the president announced his intention to hold a major foreign policy speech in the capital of an Islamic country, there were speculations in Jakarta that he might return to his former home city within the first 100 days.

The New York Times devoted a five-day series, which was spread out over two weeks, to anticipatory analysis of Obama's first hundred days. Each day the analysis of a political expert was followed by freely edited blog postings from readers. The writers compared Obama's prospects with the situations of Franklin D. Roosevelt (January 16 and February 2, Jean Edward Smith), John F. Kennedy (January 19 and February 10, Richard Reeves), Lyndon B. Johnson (January 23, Robert Dallek), Ronald Reagan (January 27, Lou Cannon), and Richard Nixon (February 4, Roger Morris).

Even political advocacy groups such as Amnesty International have planned special strategies to leverage the strategic and political significance of the first 100 days. The group has organized its 100 Days Campaign for human rights.