Newburyport Celebrates Obama's First 100 Days

Wednesday April 29th marks the 100th day of the Obama Presidency. At last week's Newburyport Democratic City Committee meeting, member Diana Kerry came up with a great idea: convene a sign-waving visibility to celebrate President Obama's First 100 Days.

Here is a link to a Joe Klein piece on the 100 days http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1893277,00.html?iid=perma_share

The legislative achievements have been stupendous — the $789 billion stimulus bill, the budget plan that is still being hammered out (and may, ultimately, include the next landmark safety-net program, universal health insurance). There has also been a cascade of new policies to address the financial crisis — massive interventions in the housing and credit markets, a market-based plan to buy the toxic assets that many banks have on their books, a plan to bail out the auto industry and a strict new regulatory regime proposed for Wall Street. Obama has also completely overhauled foreign policy, from Cuba to Afghanistan. "In a way, Obama's 100 days is even more dramatic than Roosevelt's," says Elaine Kamarck of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. "Roosevelt only had to deal with a domestic crisis. Obama has had to overhaul foreign policy as well, including two wars. And that's really the secret of why this has seemed so spectacular.

To be sure, the historic unpopularity of the Bush Administration has been a convenient foil for Obama. He has also been lucky in his enemies, a reeling Republican Party that lurches from gimmicks to hissy fits, including frequent, unbidden appearances by such unpopular characters as Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and Newt Gingrich, whose rants about everything from Obama's decision to repudiate the torture of enemy combatants to his handshake with Chávez seem both ungracious and unhinged. "We obviously haven't found our voice yet," says Senator Lamar Alexander, one of the more thoughtful GOP leaders. "The American people sent us to the woodshed. And when you go to the woodshed, the best course of action is to sit there, be quiet, figure out why you're there and what you can do about it."

Therefore we're encouraging Greater Newburyport Democrats and other supporters of the President to meet at Market Square, Newburyport on Saturday, May 2 from 10am-11:30. Bring any signs you have leftover from the campaign or make your own homemade sign. Because it seems to have special resonance at the moment, we will be serving tea.

As of that meeting and still today, we've not heard of anyone else nationally doing this, so perhaps we're breaking new ground.

Please join us in supporting the President and his efforts to get our country moving.

Hope to see you there!