44, Day 86: 2008 Was a VERY Good Year for Obama

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

-Barack Obama shows that running for president can be a very lucrative endeavor. His 2008 tax returns show he made $2.6 million from the sale of his two books--The Audacity of Hope and Dreams From My Father. Besides the books, the president and first lady Michelle Obama reported another $200,000 in wages and a amount of investment income. The Obamas paid $855,000 in federal taxes, and they applied their $26,000 refund to next year's taxes.

-On his first tax day as president, Obama invoked the name of the last Democrat in the White House as he touted what he described as his tax plan''s progressive qualities. "We need to end the tax breaks for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans, so that folks like me -- who are extraordinarily lucky -- are paying the same rates that the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans paid when Bill Clinton was president," Obama said.

-Obama's trip to Mexico should be very interesting and probably more than a little scary. Today, he directed the Treasury Department to seize assets of three Mexican big drug cartels. "Our intent is to attack the financial underpinnings of Mexico's cartels," press secretary Robert Gibbs said at a White House briefing.

by J. Jennings Moss

Sources: The White House, The Washington Post, and USA Today.