No-Shock Barack Aces Day 100 Presser

Barack Obama's 100th-day press conference last night was a "schizophrenic affair," writes Mike Madden in Salon, with the president fielding questions on everything from swine flu to torture to the intricacies of running a profitable car company. On every issue, Obama stuck to the "loose, easy style" that marked his campaign. As the world panicked about a possible flu pandemic, the president once again played it calm—sounding a bit like "the pediatrician in chief."

Throughout day 100 Obama stuck to one message: that he and his team were hard at work fixing Bush-era problems, primarily the economy. But it was style as much as substance that was on display last night: "a calm president, coolly giving the appearance that he would help the country recover from the state it's in." It might not have been a great change from earlier pressers, Madden admits, but it was "probably exactly what the White House wanted." (More Barack Obama stories.)