![]() ![]() Few disagreed when Roosevelt compared the economic emergency to a state of war. Some even played with the idea of dictatorship. People were desperate for strong leadership. He won the 1932 election in a landslide, while Democrats won solid majorities in both house of Congress. FDR faced truly extraordinary conditions. However, there are good reasons to be skeptical about the 100-day benchmark. ![]() If they did not adopt it themselves, others imposed it on them. “The Hundred Days,” one columnist explained in 1961, “are any President’s grand opportunity to create the atmosphere for himself to establish leadership.” Over the next half-century, presidents wrestled with the 100-day standard. The benchmark became fixed in everyday conversation about national politics. The political scientist Richard Neustadt, who had worked for Truman, warned Kennedy against setting unreasonable expectations. We’ve got to do a lot of things fast and differently.” One veteran of the Kennedy administration recalled the prevailing mood after JFK’s election: “We’ve got to make the first hundred days impressive. Kennedy, whose campaign seized on the idea of recreating FDR’s moment of glory. Schlesinger called that period “The Hundred Days” - a time of “intense drama and prodigious legislation.” Schlesinger was a key advisor to John F. The book converted the first months of FDR’s presidency into a myth. published the second volume of his history of the FDR years. The 100-day benchmark really gained traction after 1959, when the Harvard historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. ![]() “Actually 100 days is too little time in which to size up any administration.” But pundits still refused to get on the bandwagon. Dwight Eisenhower also faced a few “100 days” appraisals in 1953. Most people recognized that FDR had been given unusual leeway because he faced an extraordinary crisis. The Truman administration tried to recreate the urgency of 1933 without success. For the next quarter century, it didn’t matter much at all. Still, that wasn’t enough to fix “100 days” in America’s political consciousness. Senator Clarence Dill bragged that “these first 100 days of Roosevelt will be known in history as the greatest peaceful revolution in the annals of organized government.”įranklin Delano Roosevelt, Fair Use via the US Library of Congress. By the end of June, however, his allies were boasting about the administration’s accomplishments. FDR himself didn’t say anything about 100 days. At his inauguration in March 1933, FDR promised bold action to address the “national emergency” of the Great Depression. Cable news networks have used “first 100 days” chyrons and countdown clocks for the last several weeks.īlame for setting this benchmark is usually put on Franklin Delano Roosevelt. (Clinton promised the biggest jobs program since World War II.) The media has kept a steady watch on triumphs and setbacks as well. During the presidential race, both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton made grandiose promises about what they would accomplish in their first hundred days in office. Today, the 100-day benchmark is deeply embedded in American political culture. But this an outmoded and dangerous way to think about presidential performance. The media has been deluged with assessments about what Donald Trump accomplished - or didn’t - during his first one hundred days. April 29th marks the one hundredth day of the Trump presidency. ![]()
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