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WORLD> America
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Obama says waterboarding was torture
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-04-30 19:47 With the government now functioning as a major shareholder in financial institutions as well as, possibly, auto companies such as General Motors, Obama also said Washington has no intention of micromanaging private businesses or of remaining an investor for any longer than necessary. "I've got more than enough to do," he said. But the president said the government does have the right, on behalf of the taxpayers, to "scrutinize what's being proposed and make sure that their money is not just being thrown down the drain." Obama's intensive schedule marking his 100th day in office demonstrated the degree to which the administration saw both possibility and peril in the milestone, a symbolic evaluation point since Franklin Roosevelt took office in the depths of the Great Depression in 1933. Presidential aides have derided it as a media-created "Hallmark holiday" in which the White House participates reluctantly. But they also recognize it is a time frame by which all modern presidents are judged, at least initially, and which can produce negative narratives that dog administrations for years. So the White House heartily embraced the marker, making high-level Obama advisers available anywhere they were needed over the last week and crafting the president's day to maximum advantage. The opening act of the Obama presidency has been head-turning, not only for the dire times in which he took office but his flurry of activity. The reward: strong public backing despite a still-staggering economy. An Associated Press-GfK poll shows that 48 percent of Americans believe the United States is headed in the right direction, the first time in years that more people than not expressed optimism for a brighter future. But most of what Obama has done so far, as would be expected for little more than three months, amounts to no more than a down payment.
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