By Caren Bohan
ARNOLD, Missouri (Reuters) – Barack Obama on Wednesday trumpeted the sharp break he has made from the Bush administration's policies in his whirlwind first 100 days but also expressed some caution about the future.
Some have used the 100-day milestone to assess Obama's policies, even as analysts cautioned it was too soon to say whether his long list of initiatives would yield success.
Obama has signaled a new approach on policies from the economy to climate change to U.S. relations with Iran as part of an agenda that both his supporters and critics describe as ambitious.
The popular president, whose approval ratings are above 60 percent, used a town-hall style event in Missouri to push his initiatives on health care, education and the economy.
"We have begun to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off and begun the work of remaking America," Obama said. "There will be setbacks. It will take time. But I promise I will always tell you the truth about the challenges we face."
Underscoring the challenge Obama still confronts in pulling the country out of recession, new government data showed the economy contracted at 6.1 percent in the first quarter, a steeper-than-expected slide, as exports sharply declined.
While dismissing the 100-day milestone as an artificial gauge created by the media, the White House is nonetheless putting a spotlight on it with high-profile events.
At the town hall in Arnold, Missouri, near St. Louis, Obama alluded to the 100-day mark and offered his reflections. In the evening, he will return to the White House and hold a televised news conference at 8 p.m. EDT.
"We're playing along with the game," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs joked. He told reporters the media had created a wave over 100 days and "We'll try to surf it a little bit."
Looming large for Obama as well is a flu outbreak that has presented him with his first public health emergency, and a controversy over his release of secret documents detailing harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects in the Bush era.
The tradition of marking the first 100 days of U.S. presidencies dates back to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who trumpeted his ability to push through 15 pieces of major legislation in that time period after taking office in 1933 in the midst of the Great Depression.
"There is no magic to the first 100 days," said Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey. "I think people are always looking for a marker or some sort of guidepost."
As an example of the measure's flaws as a leading indicator, many analysts cite the first 100 days of the presidency of Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush.
The Republican president's two terms in office came to be defined by decisions such as the launch of the Iraq war that occurred in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks -- nearly nine months after Bush took office.
CALM DEMEANOR
Still, Baker and other experts said Obama's early months have revealed much about his style of governing, including his calm demeanor and effectiveness at commanding the stage but also his penchant for piling a lot onto his policy plate.
So far in his presidency, Obama has enacted a $787 billion stimulus program, launched a drive to overhaul the health care system, made overtures toward longtime U.S. foes Iran and Cuba and unveiled new strategies for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
William Galston, a scholar at the Brookings Institution and a former adviser to President Bill Clinton, said he viewed the 100-day mark as "an entirely artificial benchmark."
On the other hand, Galston said, "I think we've learned a fair amount about Obama the human being occupying the Oval Office.
"But a lot of people are leaping from the fact that he's set an enormous number of things in motion to the conclusion that those things that are now in motion are necessarily going to reach the finish line," Galston said. "It's not a leap I'm prepared to take."
On the domestic policy side, some critics contend Obama's stimulus package and a proposed $3.55 trillion budget he laid out for 2010 will curb economic growth in the future by leading to a mountain of government debt.
Some have also faulted Obama's moves to address the banking crisis, saying they have been too timid.
But Obama's supporters point to what they see as early signs his economic remedies may be working, including steadier stock prices and slightly improving consumer confidence.
Gibbs said the "pretty severe contraction" in GDP for the first quarter underscored the continued concern but said there were some hopeful signs in the rise in consumer spending in the report.
Giving a boost to Obama's domestic agenda was the decision this week by Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter to leave the Republican Party and join the president's Democrats. The move may put Obama's party within reach of a 60-seat majority in the Senate, potentially making it easier to push through his agenda on issues like health care.
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