One hundred days ago, region residents joined the world in watching America swear in Barack Obama as its first black president, a man whose campaign was fueled by a theme of change.
That message of change and the hope it carried has not lost momentum, said Carl Champion, an active member of Friends of Northwest Indiana and the Northwest Indiana Beverage Merchants Association.
MORE: Read more on Obama's first 100 days
"I give him an A-plus," Champion said of Obama's start in office. "On top of all the obstacles and adversaries, he's raised our level of hope. He's not a messiah, but certainly he's doing things to move us in the right direction."
"People are still excited about what's going on in government," he said. "I hope his pattern sets a precedent for others. In my opinion, he has given us reason to believe that democracy can be democracy for all people."
Highland resident Mikaela Gerba, who stood at the base of the Washington Monument on Inauguration Day, said she would give Obama's first 100 days in office a "B-plus."
The Our Lady of Grace eighth-grader said the president has a lot of good ideas, but she is concerned about the manner in which he will carry them out.
"I think his plan is really good about giving money to the middle class to get the house foreclosures (under control), but I don't know how it's going to work out," she said.
Although Gerba said her peers don't seem to have much interest in politics, the momentum is still there nationally, but is starting to die.
Obama is trying to unite the country, but some people still resist having him in office, Gerba said.
Some of that resistance was visible two weeks ago when hundreds of region residents turned out for "tea party" tax protests in Crown Point and Valparaiso. Though taxes and deficit spending by the federal government were the focus of the protest, much of the ire was directed at the Obama administration.
Chesterton resident Paulette Rodriguez echoed concerns of others in the crowd at the Valparaiso protest when she said she fears Obama is attempting to push a socialist agenda.
"He wants government running everything," she said.
As retired federal government workers, Rodriguez and her husband, Alex, said they know firsthand that having government run things is not the way to get the country out of its fiscal woes.
At the Crown Point protest, Wes Miller, a Hammond tax activist, said, "I have heard President Obama say our Constitution is outdated. What he is doing is problematic. It is attacking the fabric of our country."
Sarah Jo Ritchie, of Calumet City, said she would give Obama an A or B grade.
Obama entered the presidency with a lot of problems, and he's slowly taking them on, one by one, she said.
Ritchie, a student at Loyola University, said she particularly likes Obama's support of volunteering and service to the community.
"We're also becoming more united," she said.
