By ARTHUR I. CYR, Scripps Howard News Service

Two influential names in American party politics have passed from the scene in recent days and each provides through his example valuable pragmatic lessons in a highly partisan time. Republican Jack Kemp is the more prominent, but Democrat Sam Beer is equally instructive.

This past week President Barack Obama completed his first one hundred days in office. Since the activist leadership of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 in the midst of the Great Depression, this time period has been regarded as a very important initial benchmark.

The annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington D.C. over the weekend have reconfirmed the increasingly central roles of these global institutions, established during World War II.

Considerable media attention is focused on the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in Washington this weekend. The gathering this year is particularly important, given the continuing global financial turmoil and recession.

President Barack Obama has moved to address another presidential campaign promise by urging the worldwide abolition of nuclear weapons. He made the point with notable drama as well as attention in Prague in the Czech Republic earlier this month.

After a brief stop in Mexico City for discussions with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, President Barack Obama departed Friday for the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, two islands comprising a nation off the coast of Venezuela. The leaders focused on the enormous drug traffic from Mexico into the United States, including the alarming and growing associated violence.

Honoring a campaign commitment, President Obama has very slightly loosened very tight restrictions on interchange with Cuba. Cuban-Americans may now travel and send financial remittances to the island nation. Additionally, in what may prove a more important shift in strategic terms, telecommunications companies will now be allowed to pursue licensing agreements in Cuba.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the Bush Cabinet officer who agreed to remain in place in the Obama administration, is demonstrating considerable policy courage.

President Obama's trip to Europe has been a success, especially in media and public relations terms. Including both the European Union and NATO dimensions of Atlantic-area relationships reinforces awareness of association between economic growth and military security.

The just concluded G20 summit in London has underscored the seriousness and complexity of our global economic challenges, but also the determination of member governments to address these vexing problems. Discussions were focused, concrete outcomes resulted and there is room for optimism.