It’s turning into a BUSY political day after swine flu controlled the airways for the beginning part of the week.  Tomorrow is a big milestone for President Obama.  The events of his first 100 days in office can be put into three categories.  The Good.  The Bad.  And the Perceived Good.

The Good.  His plans to add more troops in Afghanistan, the surprise trip to see troops in Iraq, cooperation with the Mexican government and their undoubtedly courageous president Felipe Calderon on drug trafficking and the installation of a playground for the girls on the South Lawn.

The Bad.  Releasing the interrogation memos and the stimulus bill.  Both the left and the right decried the release of the memos for different reasons.  On the stimulus bill, more and more companies are declining the funds are returning them for fear of the strings attached.  The same goes for states.  The Secretary of Education announced that stimulus money can be used to give teachers raises.  But what happens when that fund goes dry - who funds that then?

Perceived Good.  Two big things: the Europe trip and the $100 million in “savings.”  Images from the European tour looked amazing with citizens in each country embracing President Obama.  I was in London in the days leading up to Obama’s touchdown and saw a good number of people excited for his visit.  I saw much of the same things in most of the 23 countries I traveled to with President Bush.  But that’s another post.  The excitement of European citizens did not translate into concrete policy victories for Obama.  He did not get combat troops in Afghanistan nor did he get a guarentee for stimulus type funds.  It will be interesting to see how this dynamic continues to play out between public adulation and private stumbles.  On the $100 million - it’s really a financial joke.  Republicans called for cutting $8 billion from the stimulus bill which Democrats, including the White House, said was meaningless because it was such a small amount.  Their response: an even smaller amount.  $100 million is, as CBS’ Mark Knoller (@markknoller on Twitter) reported .00002% of the $3.6 trillion budget proposal.  When talking about numbers that large, my head spins.  So in real terms that means if you make $50,000 a year, .00002% is a penny.   Less than $50k a year?  A fraction of a penny.  Put those pennies together for 42 years and you can buy a stamp at the 2009 rate.

There are plenty of events not listed, but these are the big ones that deserve the most attention over the next few days.