President Barack Obama speaks with a foreign leader in the Oval Office on his first day in office 1/21/09. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza.

From yesterday’s White House press briefing:

…MR. GIBBS:  Well, look, I think — not surprisingly, I doubt I’m going to enumerate them.  But I think anybody is hard-pressed to look back over a significant period of time like 99 or a hundred days and think you wouldn’t have done some things differently.  I’ve mentioned a decision today that the President would have made quite differently than was made in this White House.  I think it is safe to say that the President spends some time each day reflecting on what’s been done here in the course of any given day, and has asked us and asks himself to figure out how he can do what he does better.

When the President was first elected to the United States Senate, I remember one of the very first staff meetings that we had.  Then-Senator Obama said to all of us that were assembled that he knew that there were certain sacrifices in public service, that we could all figure out how to do something that gives us more time with our families or maybe earns us more in our paychecks, but he thought there were probably few things that we could do that were — be more rewarding if we worked every day to help people improve their lives.  I think that’s what he gets up every day thinking, and thinks each and every day about how he can improve, making sure that that happens.

Q    Do you want to juggle less balls, maybe?

MR. GIBBS:  Say again?

Q    Do you want to throw some of the balls out that you’re juggling; juggling too many?

MR. GIBBS:  No, I — I have addressed this and I think the President will probably get a chance to address this tomorrow — we don’t have the luxury of picking the problems that we address that face this country or face the American people, because we’re in a — we’re in a time period in which there’s a lot on the American people’s plate — whether it’s creating jobs; whether it’s stabilizing the financial system; whether it’s getting credit flowing; whether it’s making a college education more affordable; whether it’s cutting the cost for health care; finding a path towards true energy independence; making our nation safer; rehabilitating our image in the world in order to ensure that we have the greatest leverage and power to push the national interests of this country.  I’m not sure which of those things you would decide as less important in that group.

The President has decided that those are the issues that face this country, and he’s going to work every day to find a solution to move us a step forward toward reaching those goals…

[emphasis added]

President Obama is in Missouri this morning – holding a town hall meeting in Arnold – all with the media “celebrating” the milestone.

The President is popular, just not among what remains of the republican base:

A SurveyUSA poll of 1200 adults in the United States taken on April 27th and released on April 28th, sponsored by KABC-TV, Los Angeles with a margin of error of 2.9%:

Do you approve or disapprove of the job Barack Obama is doing as President?

All

58% – approve

38% – disapprove

4% – not sure

Democrats [39% of sample]

86% – approve

12% – disapprove

2% – not sure

republicans [29% of sample]

31% – approve

64% – disapprove

5% – not sure

Independents [30% of sample]

47% – approve

47% – disapprove

5% – not sure

Considering what other polls (Pew and NYT/CBS, for instance) are telling us about party self identification, 29% for the republican sample seems a little generous. Those poor numbers could explain Arlen Specter.

Not being a fan of the media manufactured and very artificial 100 day label, I’ll just consider this a good start.