By Christiaan Perez

Economic crisis, nuclear Iran, drug war in Mexico, global warming and the H1N1 flu. In the Past 100 days, President Obama has faced many burdens, and the time has come to see what options are available for Obama.

The University hosted a series of events focused around Obama’s first 100 days, and on Tuesday the University had the honor of hosting David Sanger, chief Washington correspondent for the New York Times, as he presented a lecture titled “Obama’s Options” and addressed confronting foreseeable crises.

Sanger wrote a book called The Inheritance, which addressed the problems that face President Obama from past failed opportunities. “The best place to start [was] the middle, during the Republican National Convention.”

According to Sanger, it was at this time that President Obama met for the first time with Michael McConnell, a man who Sanger said was “the man who could not be more different than Obama.” McConnell was the director of National Intelligence under former President Bush.

McConnell met with Obama because, according to Sanger, “it was McConnell’s belief that the next President would not have the luxury of time.” Sanger said that “urgency of some of these issues [for the Bush administration] was not realized until 2001,” and this is why the initial reactions to the issues were not as effective.

Sanger said that Obama and McConnell exchanged briefings that day, ranging from Al Qaeda to Russia to global warming.

“What was missing that day was a briefing on the global economic crisis,” Sanger said. He added said that another one of the biggest and least discussed problems was the loss of opportunity in Iraq.

Sanger also discussed the opportunity lost in Afghanistan. He said that Bush made a speech in favor of a Marshall plan for Afghanistan, yet “there was no real Marshall plan.”

Across the world the Afghans heard about the Marshall plan and were looking up waiting for parachutes, yet nothing happened. The foundation must be established for nation building force to address future nation building. “We still do not have an expeditionary nation building force,” Sanger said.

Sanger emphasized that the “first thing [Obama] had to do and first thing that angered his base was the deploying of soldiers in Afghanistan.”

According to Sanger, this was needed because of the threat of instability speading to Pakistan, the likes of which seem even more possible when Taliban forces have penetrated so far into Pakistani land.

Sanger said that the Pakistani army is weak and directed toward preparing for a war with India rather than preparing for Taliban forces. “The Pakistani army has the same problem the [New York] Yankees,” he said. “They overinvested in the wrong kind of force, cannot counter the insurgency, or the [Boston] Red Sox.”

Sanger also said that most people did not realize was how much more involved America would need to be in the upcoming years even though “after 7 years of war, many Americans were exhausted.” According to Sanger, China and Russia had taken advantage of the U.S. moment of distraction to expand their influence, unless America acts, China and Russia’s advances will be permanent.

“The first 100 days have been about tone setting not policy setting,” Sanger said. “The second 100 days will be about results.”