We have now experienced the first 100 Days of having Barack Obama as president of the United States. Believe it or not, despite the warnings of Dick Cheney, Sean Hannity and countless Tea Party attendees, the nation has not descended into socialism, Al Qaeda troops are not forcing our children into madrassas, and Rev. Jeremiah Wright is not the Congressional Chaplin.

Over the next several days, the nation is going to be inundated with analysis of how President Obama stacks up against the first 100 Days of his predecessors, and what this might tell us about the nation’s political future. Of course most of this will simply be conjecture. Predicting a president’s term based on the first 100 days office is about as reliable as predicting the end of a book after reading the preface. You might be right, but you’ll have no idea how you got there.

Rather than subjecting ourselves to the same old roundtable of presidential pontificators, I have a better suggestion for this first 100 Days. Why not consult the people who are most affected by Obama’s initial days in office – Generation Y, the youth of America.

Please don’t take the last sentence as an indicator that I’m about to embark on a maudlin, sappy discussion of how children are our future. However, shouldn’t we consider the first 100 Days of a president’s term in office from the perspective of those whose lives are going to be most affected in the long term by his policies? While Baby Boomers, the Greatest Generation and older Gen Xers are certainly all going to be influenced by Obama’s current policies, it is the millennial generation – those Americans born between 1985 and 2005, high-school and college aged students – whose views should really be brought in to assess how Obama has done over the last 3 months.

If we look at the economy over the first 100 Days, Generation Y will come into an economy that will be spurred in the next several years by stimulus money. They are saddled with roughly $3,000 dollars in national debt per person but the president has a plan. Despite the worst job market in over 60 years, there will be jobs in construction, technology and the environment funded by the government as Obama tries to kick-start the economy.
 
On the civil liberties front, the first 100 Days has been less fruitful for the youth of today. Their cell phones and emails are still being tapped, since president Obama has balked on dismantling most of the previous administration’s “War on Terror” spy apparatus. In a brief filed by President Obama’s justice department, they still support abducting anyone deemed an ‘enemy combatant’ from anywhere in the world (including the United States) and sending them to be tortured in hidden U.S. bases abroad. And despite being the first African American president, Obama has pulled out of the United Nation’s Conference on race because he feels they are too harsh on Israel.

In the realm of foreign policy, graduating seniors in 2009 can look forward to paying off their college debt by serving a few years in Afghanistan, as President Obama has pledged more troops to our war there, and been vague on when Iraq troops will come home. He’s demonstrated respect and grace with world leaders of all stripes, and has probably done more to improve the image of America abroad than Oprah and Angelina Jolie combined in only 100 days. Perhaps today’s college students can look forward to not being called ugly Americans on their next trip to Cancun this spring.

Political science shows that political views become crystallized in your early 20’s as people enter the economy, vote in their first or second presidential election and begin to experience government directly as a non-dependant citizen. A president who makes the most of their first 100 days may lay the groundwork for policies that will capture a new generation of voters, and potentially influence policy and life in America for years to come. Obama’s first 100 Days has been potentially life altering for the generation that will be most affected by his policy. Whether those changes will be positive or negative, only history, and the men and women who will soon make it, will know for sure.

(Dr. Jason Johnson is an associate professor of political science and communications at Hiram College in Ohio, where he teaches courses in campaigns and elections, pop culture, and the politics of sports.  He can be reached at johnsonja@hiram.edu.)