A doctor friend of mine told me a heart warming story.A patient of his had been very ill.  It is usual for the doctor in charge to check to see if the recovering patient was pulling through his illness properly. One of previously devised tests is to determine how coherent the patient is. So the doctor, my friend, started talking to his patient and began by asking him to reply to what to anybody else would be simple, everyday questions. 

The first question was: what is your name? There was no answer, only a puzzled frown. The next question was: what is the date today? Again, there was utter puzzlement, but no answer still. The third question was: who lives in the White House? This time there was no pause, no hesitation, no groping around for words an answer.  It came very quickly:  “White people” the patient replied with all sincerity. The doctor had to correct his patient. “No,” the   doctor said. “It is the president of the United States; it is Barack Obama.”
 

There was the smallest of pauses, almost theatrical in its nature: the smile that followed nearly split the patient’s face in half, the good doctor says.  The patient then closed his eyes and went to sleep.
 

That, in a nut shell, is the kind of magic that President Obama has instilled in Americans of all hues and political leanings.

I saw, on a TV news show, a steadfast Republican who had voted for Senator McCain say for all to hear, that he is more than willing to give his new president the benefit of the doubt. He also added that he hopes President Obama will do well so that he can vote for him the next time around, a full four years away.

A popular radio talk show host has had his wings clipped somewhat when he asserted that it was his earnest hope that the president would fail. What he meant to say was that he hoped that the president’s policies would fail, of course. But, to many listeners and critics it sounded as if he wished America ill. So intertwined were President Obama and the United States.

What is disconcerting is the way the media is counting down to the first one hundred days in office for the President. Apparently this was started in the days of President Theodore Roosevelt who went on a bill signing binge upon becoming president. That furious work load has since become almost a law in its own right, something that all presidents that followed have had to abide by. Presidents are gauged and graded according to the job done in those first one hundred gruelling days, as set by President Roosevelt.

So, in his third week in office, President Obama has to take a very deep breath so as to fill previous presidents’ shoes, such as his idol President Abraham Lincoln, and, of course the man that has set the pace for him and others, President Roosevelt.

But, what wonderful things he has done to tone down the ire of his detractors! For instance, he goes to the extent of inviting into his living room in the White House, his home for the next four, if not eight, years; people from the other side of the aisle, his political enemies; the same people that will most probably vote against every one of his pieces of legislation that he will be presenting to Congress.
 

As fast as it may seem to outsiders and although it seems as if there are not enough hours in the day for all that has to be done; he is getting things done! Yes, he has stumbled and he has had some setbacks. Three of his nominees for important portfolios have gone down in flames – for not paying their taxes on time. One sneaked in by the skin of his teeth, if only because both the administration and the opposition were sold on his abilities to see through the horrendous economic mess the country is in. President Obama still faces a growing criticism over the contradiction between his pledge to create a new, ethical administration and some of the problems of his nominees.
 

For the head of state that gets ‘only’ 400,000 dollars a year, (and where the price of bread will matter hugely for the Obama family); it was truly “shameful” and “the height of irresponsibility”, as the President described it; for some Wall Street bankers to give themselves 18.4 billion dollars worth of bonuses – all public money, he was quick to point out. This was on top of the 20 million dollars salary they were getting to begin with!

On the international front, there might well be a hurdle that President Obama and his administration will have to box clever if they are to be believed. Its an aspect of the proposed near one trillion dollars economic stimulus law wending its way through the Congress. It is the rising concern that the protectionist ‘buy American’ provisions in the bill could perhaps trigger a transatlantic trade war between the US and Europe. Again, President Obama was quick to preempt any meanings that might be misconstrued by his allies abroad.
 

The President and his advisers, as were economists around the world, are mindful of history, and worried that it might be repeated. One of the roots of the failure of world economies in the Great Depression of the ‘30’s was the stridently protectionist Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of June, 1930. It was responsible for provoking retaliation by other countries which led to a knock-on effect worldwide.  However, the fear from Europe and Japan was quickly snuffed out.
 

But for all that, there are reports in both the European and American press of the scramble by individual countries to get him to visit their countries before going anywhere else. President Obama’s courteous phone calls first to the leadership in Egypt, Jordan, Israel and Palestine did not go down well in the various capitals of Europe.
 

He, as all other presidents before him, will go calling north and south of the USA to meet the respective leaders of Canada and Mexico. After these two trips, it is anybody’s guess where he will go next. But, everybody is clamouring for his attention. Even the newly appointed Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, is going, against all custom, to Asia first, instead of Europe.
 

But, it is the little things that have gone down well. He is, above all else, a man of his age. From the inevitable and collective gasp as he bangs his head as he enters his private helicopter (he is, after all,  taller than ex-President Bush, who also managed to do the same many times); to his shaking hands with his visibly affected marine guard at the steps to the same helicopter; he is still the man that a majority still camp out overnight to get seats to the town hall meetings his White House staff arrange for him.
 

He is seen to be very much in charge. Although described as being a little professor-like at his first press conference, and perhaps long winded as well, he at least was able to brow-beat into silence, Helen Thomas.   Miss Helen Thomas has served fifty-seven of her eighty-eight years as a reporter in the White House, and has seen the backs of all presidents since President John F. Kennedy. President Barack H. Obama surely aims high.

By Mousse Ayele