44, Day 57: The Great White House Pileup

An ongoing log of the daily activities of the 44th president of the United States during his first 100 days:

-By the sound of critics and media reports, you might think President Obama is personally signing millions in bonus checks to AIG executives. Republican lawmakers want to know why the administration didn't act sooner to stop any bonuses. Polls are showing the public hates the kind of bailouts AIG is getting. And Gawker has started a clock to see when Obama might fire his steward of the Treasury Department, Timothy Geithner (the site predicts June).

-Are you one of those critics of the Obama administration and the president's $3.6 trillion federal budget for next year? If so, Mr. Obama spoke to you today: "What I say is that the challenges we face are too large to ignore. The cost of our health care is too high to ignore. The dependence on oil is too dangerous to ignore. Our education deficit is growing too wide to ignore. To kick these problems down the road for another four years or another eight years would be to continue the same irresponsibility that led us to this point."

-Personnel watch (the St. Patrick's Day edition): Obama tapped Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, a lifelong Republican, to be ambassador to Ireland.

-Personnel watch (the judicial crystal ball edition): If anyone was hoping for signs that the president would push for a liberal activist federal court, they might be a little disappointed today. Obama nominated a moderate judge from Indiana, David Hamilton, for the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

by J. Jennings Moss

Sources: The White House, FoxNews.com, Washington Times, Gawker, Washington Post, and the Associated Press.