Penn responds to Bush's first 100 days

With the vestiges of the Florida recount fiasco all but forgotten, President Bush has spent his first days trying to establish a new political order inside the Beltway. But along Locust Walk, his initial efforts have been met with mixed reactions, despite approval ratings that have stretched as high as 63 percent and his successful negotiations during the recent standoff with China. "President Bush is trying to pass off as if he's done a whole lot so far," said College Democrats president Arshad Hasan, a College sophomore. "But, as it is, he hasn't really accomplished any more than President Clinton." Hasan's Republican counterpart could not help but disagree. "When it comes to the various challenges that he's been presented with in the first 100 days, I'm beyond being impressed," said College Republicans president Philip Bartlett, a College senior. "He has demonstrated the ability to promote Republican ideals but at the same time not alienate the opposition." Bush's 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. workdays -- considerably shorter than those of his predecessor -- have been filled with talk of tax cuts, energy policy, military spending and education. He plans to achieve his goals by building a new form of leadership, one in which civility and bipartisanship are back in vogue. This follows studies that show the public thinks a lack of morality is one of the biggest issues facing the presidency. "There was this episode where he actually took the sexually explicit scenes of the movies off of Air Force One," Bartlett said of Bush. "It's a reflection of his seriousness of restoring honor and dignity to the White House -- we definitely don't have a Clinton on our hands who's going to commit adultery." One of the first issues that Bush faced was choosing his Cabinet -- which looks like an older version of his father's. Besides Vice President Dick Cheney -- former President George Bush's defense secretary -- other Republican stalwarts who worked for the elder Bush include Chief of Staff Andrew Card, Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice. But some feel that, while experienced, the line-up is less than desirable. "I think that this administration. is very much part of the old boy network, which is fine for what he wants to do," said Harold Haskins, director of student development and support planning. "He's revealing that he's a staunch conservative, and not necessarily a compassionate conservative." Many feel Bush's environmental actions so far have lacked compassion, including his backing out of the Kyoto Protocol -- a worldwide pact designed to limit greenhouse gas emissions -- and the loosening of proposed standards regarding arsenic levels in water. Although Bush has also affirmed some green policies left over from the Clinton administration -- such as wetlands protection legislation and lower diesel fuel emission standards -- many still see him as being against the environment. "He just seems to have a real lack of concern for the environment, as expected," College junior Nina Bonaventura said. "And it seems that he's playing a very immature game, trying to reverse all that the Democrats did -- even all of the really good, common sense logical-type things -- especially with the environment." The centerpiece of Bush's tenure so far has been a proposed $1.6 trillion tax cut package that he claims will jump-start what he considers to be a faltering economy. It will entail whisking money away from such programs as basic science and energy research to help make it happen. "I'm against the tax cuts, because I think it's going to harm the Social Security system," said HUP employee Joyce Richardson, while sitting outside of Houston Hall. "I mean, he's taking for granted that everyone's a millionaire. Everyone's not a millionaire." Second-year MBA student Chouch Lee said the arrogance in America's foreign policy leaves much room for improvement. "The underlying problem is that America believes that its military forces are the police officers of the world," Lee said. Lee's friend, first-year MBA student Raymond Novj, broke in, pointing out that Bush is "doing much better than expected." But Lee argued back. "It's like saying 'Austin Powers' is a good movie because it's better than what you expected."