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It can be dangerous to diss an entire town of divas. When it comes to his relationship with Hollywood, though, President Obama seems willing to run the risk. Industry support for the new president is broad and deep and the film and television communities not only raised money for his presidential campaign at crucial junctures but also provided celebrities who worked the ground campaign in some of the toughest state primaries.

President Obama will take questions in the East Room of the White House today, but they won't be coming from the Washington press corps. Instead, the questions are being posed by visitors to the White House website, and then vetted by other visitors for their relevance and importance. Those queries that rise to the top of the pile will be posed to the president at 11:30 a.m. EDT, in an order based on popularity, administration officials said.

It started with the YouTube presidential debates, Saturday-morning Internet addresses to the nation, and the Barack Obama Facebook page and Twitter feed. On Thursday, the president took another step in embracing the power of technology -- hosting a virtual town hall that elicited more than 104,000 questions and drew 3.6 million votes to determine which the president would answer. In the end, given that the questions were vetted by the White House, it felt about as spontaneous as an infomercial.

If it seems arbitrary -- even unfair -- to take the measure of a new president after just 100 days in office, you can blame Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1933, with the nation in a financial meltdown, Roosevelt came to the White House and, with an enthusiastic Democratic Congress at his command, enacted a whirlwind of emergency legislation.

As President Obama prepares to mark his 100th day in the White House, he acknowledged Monday that the nation might not reach one of his major environmental goals for a while longer: 15,000 days, or 41 years. That's how long it could take for the nation to cut its carbon emissions by 80%, Obama said during an appearance at the National Academy of Sciences. His caution plays into the administration's efforts to deflate expectations about what he reasonably could have solved by Wednesday.

For weeks, Army Gen. Ray Odierno had passionately pressed his point with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates: President Obama's plan to release photographs depicting the alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners would be a costly mistake. Last week, when Odierno was in Washington for a meeting with the president, the top U.S. commander in Iraq was pleased and grateful when Obama revealed that he had changed his mind and would oppose release of the photos. "Thanks," Odierno said.

White House tapes released Tuesday capture Richard Nixon as a pugnacious second-term president who talks of hammering out an end to the Vietnam War even if he has to "cut off the head" of the South Vietnamese leader, remarks that an abortion might be necessary if a pregnancy involved an interracial couple and appears preoccupied with savaging his political foes. As Nixon was negotiating an end to U.S.

One thing hasn't changed in the Age of Obama: Presidents who try big things face a big backlash. Scenes of gun-toting protesters and swastika-wielding demonstrators speak -- loudly -- to the passions stirred by Obama's attempt to refashion the country's healthcare system, after having already engineered a vast intervention in the sagging economy. Some of the antagonism is undoubtedly race-related. The Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama, which tracks hate groups, reports a dramatic surge in the anti-government ranks of the militia movement over the past year or so, when Obama emerged as a favorite to become the first black occupant of the White House.

The scene: A vast crowd at a political rally raises a tumult of adulation. Triumphal music rises. Graphics of President Obama's image slide across the scene as we hear the now-familiar voice say, "Change has come to America. . . . Our moment is now. . . . Yes we can!" The crowd chants. Slow pullback on the image of the White House. Announcer: "To commemorate the inauguration of our 44th president with a well-known American icon, introducing. . . ." Jingle: Chi-chi-chi Chia! Announcer: "Chia Obama!"

President Bush's accommodations are never shabby when he travels abroad. But consider life at his hotel in Abu Dhabi, where a run-of-the-mill suite can go for $1,595 a night. He was, a White House aide indicated, assigned one of the eight "Ruler's Suites" at the Emirates Palace Hotel on Sunday night. The suites are made available only to those who Sheik Khalifa ibn Zayed al Nuhayyan, the ruler of Abu Dhabi and president of the United Arab Emirates, says may stay there.