Asking About The First 100 Days

GOOD morning, Mr. President, Saturday was the 100th day of your administration. What have you to show for yourself?

You haven't forgotten your promises to the American people, have you? You know, those bold initiatives you proposed in the campaign, those...

What's that? Sorry, my mistake--there were no bold initiatives in the campaign. But you did say something about wanting to be the environmental/educational/ethical president, didn't you?

Are you satisfied with your first 100 days, Mr. President? Should the nation be?

THE poisoning of the environment is the most pressing problem facing the world, not just the United States. You ran your campaign in the Greenhouse Summer, the summer of drought, the summer of medical wastes washing ashore on America's beaches.

You started out well. Your acid rain proposal has the potential to be the first plan to succeed in stopping the decay of our lakes and forests, and your endorsement of a European plan to end chlorofluorocarbon use will help protect the ozone layer.

But your administration was slow in responding to the Exxon Valdez oil spill. When Exxon failed to fulfill its responsibility to clean up the mess, the federal government could have acted to avoid irrevocable damage.

Why didn't the Secretary of the Interior go to Alaska soon after the spill to see the scope of the disaster with his own eyes? Three weeks before the spill, an Environmental Protection Agency report criticized oil companies' "careless management of chemical and oil wastes on Alaska's North Slope." The lack of a coherent plan to deal with such crises has given new meaning to the phrase, "from sea to shining sea."

YOU said you want to be the education president. What have you done? The biggest menace to America's public school system is drugs. You appointed a "drug czar," William Bennett, but haven't given him the funding he needs to develop a successful program.

You believe in supply-side drug management, but it has not worked and never will until the rot of America's inner cities is stopped. The drug war must be coupled with a war on poverty.

Are you happy to live in the murder capital of the world? Banning the imports of automatic weapons will just force drug dealers to "Kill American." It's a heck of a way to fight the trade deficit, Mr. President. You must take stronger action against guns, or else the violence will continue--that's more important than jeopardizing your life-time membership in the National Rifle Association.

For the ethics President, it has been a rough 100 days. Your first nominee for Secretary of Defense, John G. Tower, crashed and burned on the character issue. Ethics czar C. Boyden Gray '64 was lambasted for the appearance of impropriety.

And you, Mr. President? The trial of Lt. Col. Oliver North draws attention to a deafening silence from the White House. What were your ties to the Contras? Did you keep close ties with CIA friends involved in the arms-for-hostages deal? What did you know and when did you know it, Mr. President?

If you did have an important role in the operation, Mr. President, don't expect North to keep quiet if he is convicted, and don't expect public opinion to be merciful if you yourself do not explain your involvement.

Mr. President, you promised us a clean administration--clean planet, clean schools, clean government. After 100 days, what do we have? An oil slick in Alaska, blood-stained streets in Anacostia and mud-spattered reputations in the government, your government.

AND what about your overt foreign policy? You must be tired from jetting all around the globe to meet with foreign leaders, but do you have anything of substance to show for your efforts?

Delays in making appointments have hurt foreign policy efforts. Your administration was caught completely off-guard when leaders of five Central American countries met in February and agreed to close down Contra military bases in Honduras in exchange for holding free and open elections in Nicaragua next year.

How have you yourself responded to the changes in the Soviet Union? We are excruciatingly close to a lasting peace. The cold war is over, Mr. President, and 100 days after inauguration, five months after the election, you say you cannot take substantive action until you receive the results of a report you commissioned. Caution is important, but not at the expense of opportunity.

Have you taken any substantial effort to reduce the trade deficit with Japan? Allowing the dollar to deflate seemed like a good first step, but the effects so far have been minimal. Japanese trade barriers and fundamental weaknesses in our own economy must be attacked vigorously if there is to be any long-term solution.

The trade deficit is a direct manifestation of the corrosive effects of the budget deficit on the economy. Congratulations on your tentative agreement with Congress on the budget, but you still have miles to go before you sleep, Mr. President. The government still faces massive deficits.

YOUR presidency has been criticized for "drifting," for being concerned with style at the expense of substance. That's not completely fair. After all, Harry S Truman once said the president is just a "glorified public relations man." Problems arise when public relations takes the place of policy, and these problems have arisen in your presidency.

Your predecessor, Ronald W. Reagan, came into office with a clear set of objectives--beat inflation, rebuild the military, re-establish national pride. Within his first 100 days the hostages in Iran were released, inflation began to fall, Congress was forced to spend more on defense and the first space shuttle, Columbia, was launched successfully.

Your goals, Mr. President, have either been vague--a "kinder, gentler nation"--or hypocritical. You declared your concern for education and for the environment, but your budget proposal allots just I percent of the budget for education, the environment, drug abuse programs and relief for the homeless.

Mr. President, you have plenty of time to correct the failings of the first 100 days. I hope for our country's sake that the balance of your term makes all I have written look silly and premature. Perhaps the final summary of your administration will be found in a kinder, gentler history book.