Stephen Sestanovich

Grade: A+

Let me explain: So far, it's all for class participation!

New administrations often fail to understand that their real grade depends on how well they solve what I call "the second talking-point problem." After you've developed and explained your well thought-out strategy, how do you respond to the governments that say they don't like it at all? Obviously you don't just change course (here, all the complaints one hears that the administration needs a Plan B are off the mark).

You need to make your case -- in both word and deed -- a little more convincingly. Presidents are rarely prepared for this moment by their staffs. A new administration that encounters resistance has to bring to bear new arguments, new resources, new offers that the other guy can't refuse -- or at least can't ignore. Whether we're talking about getting more Europeans into Afghanistan, or mobilizing the Chinese to lean on North Korea, or re-energizing Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, or -- the mother of all "reset buttons" -- turning around the international economy, President Obama doesn't need Plan B so much as he needs Phase Two.

Stephen Sestanovich is a senior fellow for Russian and Eurasian studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Walter Russell Mead

Grade: A

The Obama administration has had a strong 100 days. The transition at the State Department seems to be smoother than usual; the various czars and stars of the high powered team of rivals seem to be keeping their rivalries under control. President Obama's first trips abroad have gone generally well, and overall the administration has managed to set a new tone in American diplomacy. The hard choices, of course, all lie ahead and it is not yet clear whether the new administration's Operation Velvet Glove will get more support from allies and more cooperation from adversaries than the Bush administration's Operation Iron Fist. But for now, things are going reasonably well and while it is still very early in the semester, I would give the current administration an A.

Walter Russell Mead is the Henry A. Kissinger senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Grade: Incomplete

When it comes to atmospherics, Obama deserves a solid A. Dialogue has replaced hectoring. Realism is no longer considered a code word for appeasement. The nation's bout of ideological fever now about spent, good old-fashioned pragmatism has returned to favor. The president's effort to repair some of the wreckage of the Bush era is, therefore, off to a promising start.

Yet when it comes to fundamentals, Obama gets at best an "I," for incomplete. There is little evidence that his administration has even begun to connect the dots between the foreign-policy failures that defined the Bush era and the economic crisis that defines the age of Obama. Bluntly, the American Century has ended. The world no longer sees the United States as alpha and omega, source of salvation and sustenance, vanguard of history, guiding spirit, and inspiration for all humankind. Obama faces the challenge -- and the opportunity -- of conceptualizing what follows the American Century, a feat that will require not only dialogue and realism, but also historical imagination and creativity.

Andrew Bacevich is a professor of international relations at Boston University.

Gianni Riotta

Grade: B+

Oh no, President Obama cannot do it! He's all wrong. Too much money to the banks! It's a debt crisis, stupid; you do not fix it by going deeper in the red. The plan is too timid, but also too bold. Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner is sooo cute, but can he really face Congress? D+, says the rabid leftist punditry.

Oh no, Barack is all wrong, he's a socialist, and soon he'll be giving out prescription glasses, one model fits all, like John Lennon had to wear as a kid thanks to Europe's Soviet economy and welfare system. F-, says the rabid, pill-guzzling radiosphera.

We rationalists can give President Obama a B+. He is aware of the crisis's dangers; has avoided spreading fear; and has supported the market while trimming its excesses. Contrary to his European colleagues, President Obama has shied away from populism and class-war cries. He has kept the nation together. On to the fall semester.