In 103 days…

In three days, President-elect Barack Obama will be inaugurated. This means that in 103 days we will have reached the 100^th day of his Presidency. Why am I bringing this up? Very simple: a lot can happen in one hundred days. The example I’m thinking of is FDR: in one hundred days he got the New Deal going and was already in the process of pulling the country back together.

Today, I would like to address two issues: first, I would like to offer a brief prediction of what the world will look like in 103 days, and I would like to amend some of the things I said in a previous post, “Beyond FDR.”

First, predictions. The economy will probably be about the same; many economists are predicting that we won’t see any kind of turnaround until late 2009 or 2010 at the earliest. But will we lapse into depression? Probably not, but certainly not in 103 days. I suspect Obama’s huge stimulus plan will have passed by then, but it will still be too early to see the effects. The world will have fallen even deeper into recession, following the US trend. No major wars or conflicts will have developed, barring a major catastrophe. Obama’s foreign policy will look good but probably will not have the chance to try and prove itself just yet. However, I do think there will be one noticeable change in the American people: optimism. Obama will continue to look good in his first hundred days, and the media will continue to portray him as a strong, competent leader. Because of this, he will look like the leader most Americans want, and he will imbue us with a strong sense of hope and pride. Why such an optimistic prediction? Read on:

In my previous post, I stated that the media is too politically charged to allow a politician to be great. Though I still believe that the media does make it harder for a person to achieve true greatness, there are times when the media actually facilitates this, FDR was one of these people who was helped by the media—today, I think Barack Obama is another. The “liberal media” has always supported him, but even now conservative pundits are commending him on a well-run campaign and a historic win. Are some people unhappy? Yes. But on the whole everyone admits that his election is monumental, and a victory for race relations in the US. As far as Obama’s presidency goes, I think the media will continue to support him as long as he does at least an average job—they have set him up for greatness, and in times like these people want to see a hero leading their country. Unless he does a terrible job in his first hundred days, the media will continue to stand behind him. Because of this, future generations will look back and see our negative media praising our 44^th President, and they will look upon him as a great leader. In summation: greatness is achievable, even today. Though it takes more media help than before, it is possible.

On a more humorous note: in three days, we can all go back to saying “nuclear” instead of “nucular.” (But it may take us 103 days to get used to it!)