In a Mo. school, Obama delivers 100-day report card

ARNOLD, Mo. -- Visiting the only battleground state he lost on election day, President Obama told an adoring crowd in this St. Louis suburb that he was glad to be back in middle America "where common sense often reigns."

Obama held a town hall-style meeting in the gymnasium of Arnold's Fox Senior High School. Several hundred supporters greeted him with ovations and cheered as he took questions, outlined his policies and joked with audience members.

Outside, several dozen abortion protesters held up gruesome photos of aborted fetuses and condemned Obama's support for abortion rights.

But none of those protesters turned up inside the school as Obama issued a sort of report card on his first 100 days in office — a time of reflection the White House has mocked as a "Hallmark holiday" but marked with the meeting here and a prime-time press conference scheduled for this evening from the East Room.

Reprising a line from his inaugural address, Obama told the crowd that Americans have begun to "pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off" after eight years under former president George W. Bush.

After 100 days, he declared himself "pleased with the progress we've made but … not satisified."

He added that "I'm confident in the future, but I'm not content with the present."

So far, the president has averted a showdown with congressional Democrats but party tensions could elevate over such causes as Obama's push to curtail budget earmarks for pet projects and the desire by some on the Hill to provide a path to legal status for illegal immigrants.

He also faces calls from some Democrats for an investigation into Bush-era interrogation techniques used on some terrorism suspects.

The president remains a popular figure, polls show. Gallup Poll daily tracking for the week of April 20-26 finds 65% of Americans approving of how he is doing with 29% disapproving. Obama's average weekly job ratings have varied only slightly thus far, ranging from 61% to 67%.

Obama went on to take about a half-dozen questions from the audience on topics from the environment and alternative medicine to the auto bailout and Social Security.