Buffalo Pundit did a nice job of summarizing the Messiah’s first day in office noting the highlights (removed the cheerleading from the retelling though):
- Suspended Guantanamo prosecutions for 120 days
- Suspended all of Bush’s last-minute regulatory changes until a review of all of them can be conducted
- Changed the administration’s FOIA policy to “adopt a presumption in favor” of disclosure
- Froze White House staff salaries for those making over $100k
- Tightened ethics rules concerning lobbying by members of his administration
- Instructed department and agency heads to be transparent and accountable to the people
- Got on the horn to Mubarak, Abdullah, Olmert, and Abbas
- Retook the oath of office with SCOTUS Chief Justice Roberts
Additionally he used the White House Web site to bash Bush and instructed military officials to begin the end of War with Iraq. That makes six promises now kept (one on a technicallity) at the Obamameter and one blatent break from his “new post-partisan politics” mumbo jumbo.
I have to say retaking the oath was a dumb thing that was probably necessary to keep all of us Internet wackos at bay.
I believe taking the first steps to closing Guantanamo and presumably moving today to take the steps to set a date certain of a year from now is asinine.
We all knew ending the Iraq War was coming but now begins the tricky maneuvering of actually doing it without the nation falling into chaos and peril. He inherited a stable and relatively organized War zone, we will see if he can keep it that way.
Freezing the staff salaries was a good move BUT it is a symbolic one that does little or nothing to actually help our budget as Obama plans hundreds of billions in giveaway spending.
The ONE unexpected thing I did enjoy was seeing his blowhard VP crack a joke about the Chief Justice that visibly annoyed Obama and had him pushing Biden to move on. See video:
Absolutely priceless!
So no water into wine, no Rapture but aside from Guantanamo which is just utter insanity no major objections on day 1. Day 2 is shaping up to be not so good as we are expecting a close to Guantanamo & a blanket ban on all torture that could be wildly open to interpretation.
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Tags: Obama Friends
