The Last 100 Days: Obama Comes In First edition

Ever since the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, presidents have been judged on the successes they notch during their first 100 days. Now, as Barack Obama prepares to end his historic turn on the political stage, Yahoo News is running The Last 100 Days, a look at what Obama achieved during his consequential presidency, how he navigates the struggles of his last months in office and what lies ahead for him after eight years filled with firsts. We will also look at how the country bids farewell to its first African-American president.

It’s not a literal 100 days — Obama leaves office in late January 2017.

And it won’t all be about policy. As Obama himself is fond of noting, he also spent his two terms as father to daughters Malia and Sasha and husband to first lady Michelle Obama. And even without much input from the White House, the cultural landscape shifted dramatically over his two terms on issues such as gay rights.

And then there’s the way the president sees the presidency — not just his tumultuous years at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., but also the institution and its relationships (for better or worse) with other branches of government and with the news media.

In this seventh installment, we look at how Obama is wrapping up his eight years in office with a lot of “firsts.”

_____

In 100 years, historians assessing Barack Obama’s legacy probably won’t linger too long on the fact that, this May, he became the first sitting president to speak at a Rutgers University graduation. They may take note in passing that in March 2009 he became the first commander in chief to appear on a late-night talk show. But they will probably evaluate the importance of his March 2016 trip to Cuba, the first by a sitting U.S. president since the 1959 revolution that swept Fidel Castro to power — the consummation of his landmark opening to that former Cold War foe.

Consequential and controversial achievements, like Obamacare or the nuclear deal with Iran, will surely shape how future generations of Americans see Obama. While “firsts” can matter — Obama will always be remembered for shattering barriers by becoming the first African-American U.S. president — they rarely overshadow major policies or momentous world events, both good and bad.

Historians will definitely recall that George W. Bush took the United States to war in Iraq, but probably won’t dwell too much on the fact that he was the first sitting U.S. president to visit that country. He was also the first to go to places like Sweden, Mongolia and Peru, and to break ground by giving the first State of the Union address to be streamed live over the Internet.

But for a second-term president holding tightly to diminishing relevance during an election cycle, these kinds of firsts can steal headlines from the campaign, bringing public attention back to the White House and its priorities, and help shore up a legacy. For the purposes of this article, I looked most closely at firsts from Obama’s last 18 months or so in office. But Obama’s legacy also includes becoming the first sitting president to back same-sex marriage, the first to get a Latina into the Supreme Court and the first to name two women justices.

Firsts fall broadly into three categories.

They can serve to draw attention to policy priorities, as Obama did in July 2015 when he became the first sitting president to visit a federal penitentiary. His tour of El Reno in Oklahoma helped highlight his push for criminal justice reform, a cause to which he plans to devote his post-presidency.

Firsts can be natural outgrowths of longstanding strategies, like this White House’s aggressive digital communication strategy, which led Obama to become the first president to be on Snapchat, have his own Facebook page, tweet from his own account, take an Instagram photo and film a virtual reality project.

And they can draw attention to presidential legacies. In September 2015, Obama traveled to Kotzebue, Alaska, to speak to the local high school there. “There’s one thing no American president has done before — and that’s travel above the Arctic Circle,” he said. “I couldn’t be prouder to be the first, and to spend some time with all of you.” The trip aimed to highlight Obama’s efforts to battle climate change and his record on conservation.

Since taking office, Obama has created or expanded 27 national monuments, covering more than 550 million acres of land and water, more than any of his predecessors. Putting that in a press release might be a bit dry, so he applied the principle every cub reporter learns quickly: Show, don’t tell.

“Sometimes a first is a good way to be highlighting policy, and let him see something he normally wouldn’t get to experience,” an administration official told Yahoo News about the visit. “But at no point are we expressly doing [something] just because it was a first.”

In fact, sometimes the White House staff doesn’t realize that it’s putting a first on the president’s schedule according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“For the federal penitentiary, we only realized that [it was a first] in the planning process,” the official said. Bureau of Prisons personnel realized they had no road map for managing the complicated security procedures required for a presidential visit.

The list of firsts in Obama’s last stretch is long, and on something like a monthly rhythm. In March, he went to Cuba. In May, he visited Hiroshima. In June, he declared himself a feminist. In July, he penned an academic journal article. In September, he went to Laos. And he guest edited the October issue of Wired.

In June 2015, he became the first president to be interviewed in a garage for a podcast, sitting down for questions from Marc Maron. And in November of last year, Obama became the first sitting president to be photographed for the cover of an LGBTQ outlet, the magazine “Out.”

The lists of “first sitting president” opportunities is both constantly shrinking (stuff being done) and always expanding (how long until “first sitting president to walk on the moon”?). What firsts will the next president pile up?

_____