Obama's First Month In Office, By The Numbers

By: Mark Knoller
Topics: White House

(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

To many White House staffers it seems closer to a year, but it was just a month ago today that Barack Obama began his presidency.

He's still new on the job and getting a feel for its perks and peculiarities. He now knows he's not supposed to stop and shake the hand of the U.S. Marine corporal saluting him at the steps of Marine One. But Mr. Obama also knows that as Commander-in-Chief, no one can tell him not to do it.

There are many ways to assess his first month in office. And here are some numbers – in no particular order - from the CBS News database.

Days in Office: 32

Oaths of Office Taken: 2
(One at the Inauguration, and a re-do the next day because Chief Justice Roberts misplaced the word "faithfully.")

States Visited: 7
(Maryland, Virginia, Indiana, Florida, Illinois, Colorado, Arizona)

Flights on Marine One: 16

Flights on Air Force One: 16

Bill-signing Ceremonies: 3
(Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act; Children's Health Insurance Reauthorzation Act, or S-CHIP; American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, aka the stimulus bill)

Increase in the National Debt: $163-billion
(to $10.789-trillion)

Cabinet Nominees Withdrawn: 3
(Bill Richardson, Tom Daschle and Judd Gregg)

Cabinet Posts Unfilled: 2
(Commerce and HHS)

Visits to Camp David: 1

Foreign Nations Visited: 1
(Canada)

News Conferences: 2
(One primetime at the White House; one joint session yesterday with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper)

Nights Out: 7
(Including a visit to the Kennedy Center for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater)

Visits to Schools: 4
(Sidwell Friends, Bethesda, MD – which daughter Sasha attends; Capital City Public Charter School, D.C.; Concord Community H.S., Elkhart, IN.; Dobson H.S., Mesa, AZ.)

Executive Orders: 12
(The last one was yesterday, establishing White House Office of Urban Affairs)

White House Briefings by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs: 13
(Plus 8 "gaggles" on Air Force One)

Obama Visits to the White House Press Room: 1
(That we know of)

Visits to the Pentagon: 1
(Jan. 27)

A spokesman says he's aware of no anniversary cakes or other events to mark the one month milestone at the Obama White House.

(CBS)

Mark Knoller is a CBS News White House correspondent. You can read more of his posts in Hotsheet here.

Mark Knoller
Mark Knoller is a CBS News White House correspondent.
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by Frisky1989 February 23, 2009 3:17 AM EST: Obama: What a joke!!!; Reply to this comment


by mavnomore February 22, 2009 9:00 PM EST: For the 20 percent *gah gah club* that wants to lay every Bush fiasco at the feet of the 'do nothing Congress':

Grover Gets His Wish

Who is Grover Norquist?

In 1999 Grover Norquist was instrumental in securing early support for then Texas Governor George W. Bush, continuing a decades-long association with Karl Rove. ("The Wall Street Journal's John Fund dubbed him "the Grand Central Station" of conservatism and told The Nation: "It's not disputable" that Norquist was the key to the Bush campaign's surprising level of support from movement conservatives in 2000"). After Bush's election to the White House in 2000, Norquist was the prime architect behind the many Bush tax-cuts and the push for deregulation.

(cont); Reply to this comment


by mavnomore February 22, 2009 8:59 PM EST: (cont)

The "Wednesday Meeting" of Norquist's Leave Us Alone Coalition has become an important hub of conservative political organizing. George W. Bush began sending a representative to the Wednesday Meeting even before he formally announced his candidacy for president in 1999. "Now a White House aide attends each week," reported USA Today in June 2001. "Vice President Cheney sends his own representative. So do GOP congressional leaders, right-leaning think tanks, conservative advocacy groups and some like-minded K Street lobbyists. The meeting has been valuable to the White House because it is the political equivalent of one-stop shopping. By making a single pitch, the administration can generate pressure on members of Congress, calls to radio talk shows, and political buzz from dozens of grassroots organizations.

(cont); Reply to this comment


by mavnomore February 22, 2009 8:57 PM EST: (cont)

Grover%u2019s Vision:

An America in which the rich will be taxed at the same rates as the poor, where the minimum wage is repealed, unions are made irrelevant, and law-abiding citizens can pack handguns in every state and town. "My ideal citizen is the self-employed, homeschooling, IRA-owning guy with a concealed-carry permit," says Norquist. "Because that person doesn't need the godd@mn government for anything."

Norquist is famous for saying, "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." His plan is for the federal government to amass massive debt without increasing taxes on the rich, if the federal government is mired in huge debt it can no longer fund social programs of any kind, including Social Security, Medicaid, Veterans benefits...

Grover%u2019s Conservative Agenda:

At the Conservative Political Action Conference, right-wing activist and anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist urged conservatives not to work to accomplish anything in the current Congress.

(cont); Reply to this comment


by mavnomore February 22, 2009 8:56 PM EST: (cont)

%u201CGet married, develop a hobby, learn to belly dance, learn to golf %u2014 you know, we got two years free, but we gotta spend time and effort playing defense here,%u201D Norquist said. %u201COur job is to say %u2018no, no, no, no%u2019 for two years.%u201D

Norquist predicted, %u201CPeople are gonna go, %u2018oh maybe this bill isn%u2019t as bad as it looks.%u2019%u201D But he warned, %u201D Don%u2019t eat it, don%u2019t swallow it, don%u2019t touch it. Nothing good passes this Congress.%u201D

Transcript:

NORQUIST:Nothing good happens in the next two years out of this Congress. Nothing good.

If you read in the newspaper that there%u2019s a bill with a nice sounding name, and it sounds in the first sentence like the bill is good, you haven%u2019t read the whole bill.

Nothing good happens. They%u2019re not going to cut taxes.

(APPLAUSE)

Because the Democrats are going to be like young men on prom dates %u2014 they%u2019re gonna keep asking the same question of us over and over and over again. And our job is to say %u201Cno, no, no, no%u201D for two years.

Nothing passes in this Congress.; Reply to this comment


by neonutty February 22, 2009 4:45 PM EST: Incredible first month!! Finally, we have a president!! Now, in the second month, imprison Bush, Cheney, Rove, Wolfowitz, Pearle, and the rest of the gang!; Reply to this comment


by hitoyou11 February 22, 2009 1:21 PM EST: He gets an F. He is no good. Hope you like paying taxs. He is the worst every.; Reply to this comment


by homespunlady February 22, 2009 3:30 AM EST: Funny thing is that I read a while back an article by some Bush Neocon that actually DEFENDED and PROMOTED bringing back FEUDALISM...

Guess the CBO's economic tracking info along with several other financial/demographic watchers now have MORE CLEAR sets of indicators of what happens when FOOLS tip the BALANCE of national economies too far into ever shrinking wealth CONCENTRATIONS while robbing the majority of their rights to decent lives.

Next up for those that don't read history:
either it gets FIXED or there comes a point of MASS REVOLT.

The election was a VERY MILD hint of what comes next if this mess becomes unfixable
due to the "HAVES" NOT playing fair and telling the HAVE NOT PEE-ONS "let them eat cake".

Whining about budget deficits after letting the "crony capitalist PONZI PROFITEERS" rob the finances of the nation is a bit like closing the barn door after letting the livestock escape.; Reply to this comment


by homespunlady February 22, 2009 3:11 AM EST: Just as a reminder of the "bush priorities" and their results here's JUST 2 YEARS of disastrous policies that LED to the current FINANCIAL MESS:

By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON
Published: December 15, 2007

"The increase in incomes of the top 1 percent of Americans from 2003 to 2005 EXCEEDED THE TOTAL INCOME of the poorest 20 percent of Americans, data in a new report by the Congressional Budget Office shows.

The poorest fifth of households had total income of $383.4 billion in 2005, while JUST THE INCREASE in income for the top 1 percent came to $524.8 billion, a figure 37 percent higher.

The total income of the top 1.1 million households was $1.8 trillion, or 18.1 percent of the total income of all Americans, up from 14.3 percent of all income in 2003. The total 2005 income of the three million individual Americans at the top was roughly EQUAL TO that of the bottom 166 million Americans, analysis of the report showed.

Earlier reports, based on tax returns, showed that in 2005 the top 10 percent, top 1 percent and fractions of the top 1 percent enjoyed their GREATEST SHARE of income since 1928 and 1929."

(the LAST GREAT DEPRESSION) So, it's NOT ENOUGH for the NEOCON PRIVATEERS to cause ANOTHER GREAT DEPRESSION but they throw temper tantrums when they're FINALLY STOPPED FROM THEIR blinded by madness destruction spree.; Reply to this comment


by jedi234 February 22, 2009 1:29 AM EST: You have nothing to fear but fear itself. What you are afraid of is this President is working and making everything he is doing available to the public and we can send a message or contact message on white house .gov and you are just not use to this openness. What did you see that Bush and Cheney did, we are still trying to find his crooked deals that put us in the doldrums. Please man wake up, do you think he is fixing his mess or Bush''s mess. He may take a while but he will get it, and Florida is a republican state what do you expect intelligence

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Posted by starleo14672 at 08:40 PM : Feb 21, 2009

He is fixing the mess that Clinton created with the same methods Bush used. Tax cuts and more spending. That has never worked. Not in the last 8 years. Not for FDR and it wont work fot the Messiah. I know you all think he is your god, but he is following the spend spend spend, plan which is stealing from our children!!!; Reply to this comment