Obama's First 100 Days: The Essential Course Correction

'Tis the season of snap judgments on President Obama's first 100 days in office, replete with scorecards, grading sheets, and cartoon thumbs pointing up or down. The temptation with such analyses is simply to generate a laundry list of accomplishments, as if a crowded agenda or a flurry of decisions connotes successful leadership. Under normal circumstances, the key measure tends to be "traction," as in, Did the new administration hit the ground running on issues A through Z?

But these aren't normal times. ...