Mr. Foreman makes a good point in saying that we need to look at how the Normal American's are fairing in these "hard time's". And yes Obama has made strides toward a "more perfect union" and shown the people action. But what about the policies that govern the "Normal American". As Senator Jim Webb has stated, "With 5% of the world's population, our country now houses nearly 25% of the world's reported prisoners." And "one in every 31 adults in the United States are in prison, in jail, or on supervised release." How has President Obama dealt with the enormous problem that is our Criminal Justice System in his first 100 days? This to me seems like it should be a top concern of the American people. AND how is he reacting to, and or dealing with the bipartisan legislation introduced in late March by Senator Webb The National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009 (S.714) .

Theres one thing you left out. We, like never before, are not looking for a magic bullet to fix everything...Americans have patience now. we are finally at a point in our history where we are getting back to the basics of life...the world of greed is ending...family, faith, freinds, community, this is what life is about, our lives are no longer about THINGS. Yes monetarily we may have taken a hit, but thats not importanat anymore, life is not about money, its about what you do to and for others. Money means nothing and thank God we are starting to see that.

Tom,
does it really say a lot about Barack that with the terrible numbers we are still more confident in him or does it say more about us?! I agree he's done more in the frist 100 days than most presidents and he has done the things he "wanted" to do and made it fit with what we "had" to do. However the fact that people still look at him with nothing but stars in their eyes scares me, he's our President, not a rock star...he's our President....we need to start treating him as such.

Great letters btw...I hope htey don't end now that 101 is here.
Marcy

Tom ~ You hit the nail on the proverbial head. You've pointed-out the best yardstick for measuring the first 100 days in a way that's honest and guards against the headiness of idle, idol worship. While we can continue to be supportive of the president, and hopeful, at some juncture the gauge will have to become more about the human condition and less about whether we like the rhetoric and style of the new administration.

Socialism comes to mind.

My husband just lost his job after 18 years at the same company. In 18 years he never missed a day due to illness. He got up every morning at 4:30am for 18 years to support our family.

We bought a modest small home in Northern Michigan. We decided 5 years ago to add on and improve our home because it was only 800 square feet and we had 2 children. So we took out a conventional loan and decided to take out some loans on our 401k. We have been paying the loans back until my husband lost his job in March. Now we are faced with penalties from the government of 10% plus we have to pay taxes on the distributed amount of the loan. I don't mind paying taxes but why does the government have to penalize us on something out of our control? Why hasn't Obama waived this penalty to help out some hard working Americans who can't afford this penalty at this time? I am not the only one facing this hardship, the company moved and many of the employees are faced with these fees due to the 10% government enforced penalty. Please help me get this message across so that something can be done to waive this penalty. We are facing hardship as it is, we can't afford to pay this 10% penalty and have this hanging over our heads for years.

Thank you!

Our current dreary economic situation took more than 100 days to get where it is now, and it’s going to take a lot more than 100 days to get cleaned up. I think most Americans understand that. We are willing to hunker down and hope for the best, at least for the time being. Many of us also realize that for the past few years were living far beyond our own means. We’ve been woken up after a bad dream and know that we have some cleaning up of our own to do.

Happy Friday!

What relief is there for people like myself that did not live beyond my means yet I lost everything.

I see that all these bail outs will most likely impact my taxes. I lose everything and have to pay more in taxes to cover for those who lived beyond their means.

Special new Loan programs for those that should not have had them in the first place...

What about special loan programs for people that can actually pay their mortgages?