I've read that 100 days is about 1/14 of President Obama's first term. So look on the bright side: only 13/14 left to go! What to say about Obama's presidency thus far? He has continued or expanded many of the policies of the late Bush administration, in both domestic (bailouts) and foreign (Iraq, Afghanistan, terrorist surveillance) policy. The changes he's made from Bush mainly have to do with social and environmental policy and a tonal difference in presidential diplomacy. And he's had his first misstep. His decision to release Bush-era memos on interrogation created a political firestorm that had the president backing away from any prosecutions or independent commissions in the space of one week. Obama has signed one major piece of legislation: the stimulus. But how big an achievement is that? Getting Congress to spend money is like getting a wino to drink. It's easy. In foreign policy, Obama has been all talk and no cattle. He went to Europe and spoke boldly about nuclear abolition and the need for global stimulus and more troops in Afghanistan. He got nothing. He went to Trinidad, where he yukked it up with Hugo Chavez and sat in silence while Daniel Ortega blamed all of his country's problems, including the weather, on the United States. Obama spoke of a new era between the United States and Cuba. The Cubans have given him nothing. Iran and North Korea? The same. Maybe the president's outreach to America's adversaries will pan out. Probably not. Obama's largest accomplishment in these 100 days, it seems to me, is getting liberals to feel better about their country. There's no need to link to the numerous over-the-top assessments of the president's greatness to demonstrate how thrilled the opinion-making class is over Obama. Believe it or not, that does count for something. It speaks to a renewed faith in America's capacities that, for the last eight years, was sorely lacking among the people who write our newspapers and magazines and produce our television and cinema. Notice that there's been a jump in the number of people who think the country is headed in the right direction, a jump that's almost entirely attributable to a huge increase in the number of Democrats who think so. This is proof positive, incidentally, that the right track / wrong track number should be junked. All it is, is a reflection of partisan sensibilities. The polling reveals some fascinating divergences. Here's the best way to put it: More people approve of Obama personally than approve of his presidency, and more people approve of his presidency than approve of his major policies. For example, in the WSJ poll only 38 percent say the stimulus is a good idea, a slim majority approves of a cap-and-trade plan, a majority says Obama was wrong to release the Justice Department memos, and a majority opposes investigating Bush officials involved in interrogation policy. Other polling has shown that the public is outright opposed to the bank and auto company bailouts. But, hey, he's popular, right? Everything's fine. Of course, Obama's popularity is about average when compared with his predecessors. That's a C grade. But let's make it a C+ for style and effort.