Obama leading U.S. ideological shift

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Far more than anything else, President Barack Obama's first 100 days have been marked by an ideological shift to traditional Democratic policies in tackling the U.S. recession.

On foreign policy, Obama has pushed for a more accommodating U.S. diplomacy. He has worked to reduce U.S. troops in Iraq and beef up forces in Afghanistan. Ahead lie tests from the Taliban's rise in nuclear-armed Pakistan, and the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran.

Inheriting the worst economic crisis in decades, Obama and many Democrats are advocating big spending increases on healthcare, education and green technology, calling them investments needed to rebuild the economy.

In so doing, he has set the United States on a path toward reversing eight years of the Bush administration's conservative policies.

"Most of all, I want every American to know that each action we take and each policy we pursue is driven by a larger vision of America's future -- a future where sustained economic growth creates good jobs and rising incomes," Obama said in a recent economic speech.

In sum, said Merle Black, a political science professor at Emory University in Atlanta, Obama is leading "the most liberal administration we've ever had in terms of what he's trying to do -- with extraordinarily ambitious goals."

How much of his agenda he will be able to navigate through the Democratic-controlled U.S. Congress remains an open question, because even some Democrats fret at the costs -- for starters, a record $3.55 trillion budget for fiscal 2010.

"Because of the Bush administration's collapse at the end due to the financial situation, he's got a lot of leeway right now in terms of what he can propose. It remains to be seen what he's going to get out of this," Black said. link...