An Historic Pace

Yesterday I was thinking about perhaps going back to see what Barack Obama did in his first few days as president in 2009.  Then I remembered what the results of his time in office were, and decided that it would hurt too much.  So I have no idea what he was doing his first few days in office.  Wasn't good, whatever.

I remember the networks positively fawning over him, and when they weren't fawning over him, they were fawning over his wife.  By May, so help me, there was already a book out "celebrating" her "fashion sense", which sort of escaped me.  I remember its authors being on one of the network morning shows hawking the book, and there was so much fawning I started craving venison.

I don't expect to see a comparable book done about our current First Lady, though, who actually was a well-known professional model and thus has what I would regard, in my benighted ignorance of fashion, as a "style."

But I digress.

The reason I even got to thinking about Obama's first days is because the first few days of the Trump Administration have been a busy-as-heck whirlwind of executive orders, appointments, meetings with business and union leaders and congressional leadership.  Most importantly, there is an agenda out there, an agenda set by the new president to implement the simple, direct promises that he made when he was running in the campaign:

- Build the wall with Mexico
- Address immigration and the refugee flood
- Get rid of tons of regulations cramping business
- Create private sector jobs
- Start the stalled pipelines
- Raise our GDP growth 3-4% where Obama never got it
- "Drain the swamp" -- break the hold of career government types and politicians

Interestingly, the meetings, those executive orders and reversals of Obama executive orders, all in a flurry this week, have been pretty much all addressing those straightforward goals and promises.  The Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines are on their way now, blessed by "Go for it" executive orders.

Trump has met with both key business leaders and private-sector union leaders, both of whom gushed as they came out the door as to how receptive and forward-thinking the new president was.  That both could come out with positive statements is pretty interesting, since they have been historically a lot more antagonistic than they should have been, or needed to have been.  But then again, Trump worked his whole life with unions, and as I would like to think showed a lot of foresight, I pointed that out last February in this piece.

His shutdown of the EPA trying to do things before his appointed EPA Administrator took office, well, that was swamp-draining of the first magnitude.  We have already had executive orders cutting the flow of unvetted refugees and ISIS suspects from countries that cannot ensure they're not sending ISIS types.  And the Wall, well, that is already on its way to getting funded.

It's a fast start for the guy who never sleeps, but then again that seems to be his M.O. for leadership.  You wake up early, send a few tweets, and get to work about five in the morning.  Work, work, meeting, work, a bite here and there, work some more.  Foreign dignitary in town at four in the afternoon, then back to work.  Five more executive orders.  Meet with more congressmen about getting the agenda going.  Actually listening to the opposition.  Work some more.  In bed at one, after maybe another tweet.

I couldn't keep up that pace and I'm healthy and five years younger than the president.  But he has a lot to do.  In eight years, Obama did a lot of damage to our economy and our standing around the world.  That's not going to get fixed anytime soon, but then maybe it will the frenetic and productive pace of the 45th president.

Lots to think over over the weekend, and while I might try to relax some, I can probably do so because the president is, well, not relaxing.

Busy first week.  Two hundred seven to go in just this term.

Copyright 2017 by Robert Sutton
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