WASHINGTON: In his high-velocity first 100 days, Barack Obama has sketched the outlines of a presidency of astounding ambition, which would remake the US at home and transform its role abroad. Yet the new president’s agenda still faces tests of fire posed by a punishing economic crisis, the scheming of US allies and foes abroad and a poisoned political environment back home. “It is clearly the most ambitious agenda at least since the 1960s,” said Princeton University historian and political scientist Julian Zelizer. Inheriting a crisis of a magnitude few recent predecessors faced, Obama seems to have steadied America’s nerves despite the wrenching financial blight. He unleashed a huge government intervention in the economy, passed a historic $787-billion stimulus bill and now has high-stakes environmental and healthcare reforms on the launchpad. Abroad, Obama gave Russia respect it craves, reached out to Muslims and vowed to drain decades of enmity with foes Cuba and Iran. He previewed fundamental policy changes towards China, Mexico and Cuba, apologised to Europeans for past US “arrogance,” mandated the closure of Guantanamo Bay, outlawed torture and ordered withdrawal from Iraq. Obama doubled down in Afghanistan and Pakistan, ditched US denial on climate change and called for a world free of nuclear weapons. Tom De Luca, professor of political science at Fordham University, said Obama’s foreign policy was “breathtaking in its scope.” “I think it clearly illustrates the immense self confidence Obama has in himself and in his administration.” Obama, 47, once panned by rivals as inexperienced, slipped on the mantle of president with ease, in unflappable style.