Has it been only 100 days since Barack Obama took the oath of office? Sometimes 100 days feels like more than 100 days. This is one of those times. Mr Obama's first 100 days have been among the most eventful in history.

So how's it going?

According to the American people, pretty damn good. Not only do 69 per cent of the public approve of the job he is doing, but last week, for the first time since January 2004, more Americans felt the country is heading in the right direction than in the wrong (48 per cent to 44 per cent). Remarkably, this number has been steadily rising even as the economy has been steadily falling.

On election night Mr Obama warned that “the road ahead will be long” and that “our climb will be steep”. But his poll numbers are a vindication of the idea that, with the right leadership, Americans are mature enough to heed those words and not expect immediate results.

So any list of the most impressive achievements of the first 100 days should start with the intangible qualities of transformational leadership - from the President's personal equanimity (which Robert Reich, Bill Clinton's Secretary of Labour, described as “the serene centre of the cyclone, exuding calm when most Americans are petrified”) to his masterly use of the bully pulpit.

In only 100 days Mr Obama has had almost as many prime-time press conferences as in George Bush's entire first term. And his willingness to speak directly to the American people - in halls around the country, on YouTube, on Tonight with Jay Leno - and to engage with them by answering questions online and reading ten letters a day is a powerful reminder that the White House isn't a privatised bubble or underground bunker.

He has also offered tone setters that are a useful reminder that the President is more than just the country's Chief Executive - that he and the First Lady are potentially its chief teachers. They have already taught a lot of lessons - about what and how we eat by planting an organic vegetable garden at the White House, and about commitment to family through their relationship with their daughters and by having the First Granny move into the White House.

Now to the more tangible aspects of his presidency.

The pluses

The stimulus package. It wasn't big or bold enough, and suffered from the malodorous scent of Eau de Congressional Business as Usual, but the speed and focus with which it was passed showed how serious Mr Obama was about pulling America out of its economic freefall, and how competent his team was at hitting the ground running.

It also taught Mr Obama a lesson about the limits of bipartisanship for the sake of bipartisanship.

Passing and signing the National Service Bill. Not so long ago, a call for sacrifice meant asking people to go shopping or take a trip to Disney World. Creating a system in which more people can feel they are true stakeholders in their communities will not only produce physical benefits - it will help to repair America's moral infrastructure. Their answering of the call will be additional proof that Americans have been waiting for a leader to ask more of them.

Reversing course on stem cells. A clear statement about the return of the reality-based world. As Mr Obama said: “It is about ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda, and that we make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology.”

A progressive Budget. Healthcare, provisions to tackle rising inequality, a more rational defence budget, tax cuts for all but the very wealthy - as David Leonhardt, of The New York Times, wrote, this was “nothing less than an attempt to end a three-decade era of economic policy dominated by the ideas of Ronald Reagan and his supporters”.

Foreign relations. From granting his first presidential interview to al-Arabiya TV to loosening the embargo on Cuba to hanging an open sign on the State Department, Mr Obama has signalled that the bellicose days of antagonism as the default US foreign policy position are over. His decision to close Guantánamo Bay also sent the right message to the world.

The rescue of Captain Richard Phillips of the Maersk Alabama. Blowing away fears of a seafaring Black Hawk Down, Mr Obama's restrained handling of the situation demonstrated that the new Commander-in-Chief is not afraid to pull the trigger when an American life is on the line. Bonus points for causing the world view about Democrats being nothing but bleeding hearts to shift on its axis.

That's a solid run of pluses. But:

The minuses

The bank bailout. In almost all his appointments, Mr Obama has demonstrated a desire to receive a wide range of opinion. The exception is at the Treasury, where the range of opinion goes all the way from Goldman to Sachs. Several hundred billion dollars later, banks still aren't lending, the zombies are still on their feet, preferred shareholders are still catered to, the knowledge of where our money has gone is spotty at best and oversight and transparency remain unfulfilled promises. The White House's vision for the rescue remains startlingly myopic. The result is the funnelling of hundreds of billions of taxpayers' dollars to the very people who got us into the mess - with little accountability in return.

The biggest black mark on the first 100 days is the head-scratching reliance on the bank-centric beliefs of Larry Summers and Tim Geithner.

Afghanistan.The President has committed 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan but, as many, including Mr Obama himself, have noted, there is no exclusively military solution. And, unlike with Guantánamo Bay, he has adopted Mr Bush's policies towards the prisoners held at Bagram Air Force Base.

Torture accountability. Mr Obama has said he wants to look forward, not back, and it's reasonable not to want his agenda sidetracked by torture commissions and investigations. But how America responds to revelations about the Bush Administration's use of torture isn't merely a question of policy; it is a question of morality.

The minute the President starts framing the issue as a matter of right v wrong, his choices will be clear. If there is one thing Mr Obama cannot afford to abandon it's the moral high ground. He can trust the American public to walk and chew gum at the same time - to support a national healthcare plan, a new energy plan, education reform, and to support accountability for those who undercut our fundamental values.

Sensible gun control. Despite recent deadly gun rampages and an appeal from the President of Mexico, whose country is paying a heavy price for bought-in US guns, Mr Obama has turned his back on his promise to reinstate a ban on assault weapons.

For eight years America has suffered from the soft bigotry of low presidential expectations. Mr Obama's first 100 days have been an inspiring change from a White House that expected as little from us as it did from itself. The road ahead is indeed going to be long and steep. But at least we're on the right road.

— Arianna Huffington is editor of The Huffington Post

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