Obama’s First 100 Days

Since FDR, it is common for Americans to judge a president’s effectiveness based on his productivity over the first one-hundred days of his presidency. It’s interesting to note that the “100 days” of FDR were actually not the first one-hundred days of his presidency but the first one-hundred day session of Congress. Congress was convened on March 9, 1933 – five days after the inauguration, and they adjourned on June 16, 1933 – 100 days later. This period of time was the most productive in American legislative history.

I think most Americans understand that it is unfair to judge a President based on what he can accomplish in less than 7% of his term – and at the beginning of it – yet we all still seem fascinated by this arbitrary measure of productivity. There are websites where one can see the progress other presidents made and others that will track President Obama’s progress (here and here) and still others with lots of advice for our new President.

Businessweek has advice on how to be productive in the first one-hundred days and the Washington Post warns that Obama should not make the same mistakes Clinton made.

As official Washington turns its attention from the transition to Obama’s plans for the first 100 days, Clinton’s difficult experience in his own first 100 days can again serve as a cautionary tale for Obama.

Clinton sought to move on a number of major policy fronts — an economic stimulus package, an overhaul of the health care system led by Hillary Clinton — that were eventually abandoned, and was buffeted by unforeseen controversies (gays in the military/”don’t ask, don’t tell”) and unpredictable events (the Branch Davidian stand-off in Waco, Texas).

“I think there was a great deal of exuberance by the president in terms of what he’d be able to accomplish immediately, and, no, he couldn’t match it all,” said Democratic pollster Peter Hart of Bill Clinton in the spring of 1993.
Obama’s First 100

So, what should Barack Obama do in his first one-hundred days?

Scientific American says

Energy security is the greatest challenge and the greatest opportunity of our time. But lack of action has put the U.S. at risk. America needs a bold plan that ignites our collective imagination, sparks innovation, and creates economic and national security. The starting point? A call to action from our new president in the first 100 days of his administration.
Obama’s First 100 Days

and it is clear that many others care about peace and the environment.

I think most people believe that the biggest challenge we face at this point is the economy. Commenters on the WP piece seem to agree that the economy is most pressing (followed by Isreal, and energy). Gerald F. Seib, Executive Washington Editor at the Wall Street Journal says that the top five items on the to-do list are economy, economy, economy, economy, and economy. This guy says the top issue is the economy (followed by Guantanamo, the Middle East, energy, and healthcare) and one of his commenters points out the following:

Barring any event of the magnitude of 9/11 or something approaching it, the bread and butter issue of American politics is, as it’s always been, the price of bread and butter.
link

and others agree

Though presidential historians say it’s an arbitrary – and in some ways unfair – measurement, they say Obama’s early actions will set the tone for his administration and establish his priorities and leadership style.

“It’s an unreasonable expectation that we put on all our presidents, just because it worked that way in 1933 for FDR. They shouldn’t be held to that” said Stephen Hess, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who worked for several presidents.

Obama’s advisers and outside observers say it is clear that fixing the economy and creating jobs will dominate his agenda in the early days, just as it did Roosevelt’s.
Shades of FDR

Alan Murray, Deputy Managing Editor at the Wall Street Journal, says that even though President Obama faces “a significant number of foreign policy problems” (Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Middle East) of which any one could hijack the President’s agenda, the economy is the biggest issue “bar none” and that the stimulus plan he pushes through Congress will “probably be the defining product of his presidency.” In a video preview of the next one-hundred days, he says that Obama will be considered successful if he can recover the economy and tackle just one more of the important issues on his agenda. Another commentator in the same video reminds us, though, that every day spent on the “short term agenda” is a day not spent on healthcare, climate change, or taxes.

President Obama’s campaign website has a list of issues that also puts the economy at the top, though the list is actually in alphabetical order.

The President himself had this to say:

“The first hundred days is going to be important, but it’s probably going to be more like the first thousand days that makes a difference” he told a Colorado radio station in an interview shortly before Election Day. “Most of the big challenges that we face, whether it’s making college more affordable, or fixing our health care system so it works for everybody, or making sure that we’ve got a serious energy strategy, or winding down the war in Iraq, all those things are probably going to take longer than three months to complete.”
Shades of FDR

Actually, I am not sure I’d agree that the economy should be the point of focus over the next one-hundred days. I must admit that I feel a certain sense of unease at the present state of our economy but I am in a different position than most – I have very little debt and 80% of my income comes from recession resistant sources. I’d like to think that my opinion would be the same even if that were not the case. Our economy has thrived for years on over-consumption and that has led us to this point. In order to solve our environmental problems and improve our stature in the world, we need to cut back on our consumption. I think a sluggish economy is a necessary evil and I am not sure we need to jump in and save it.

That being said, I believe that something must be done to help those who desperately need to survive during these hard economic times. My biggest concern, and the number one reason I voted for President Obama, is social injustice in the world. There are many in our own country who cannot afford to put food on the table and that ought not to be so in a place like this.

So, I guess in a sense it all comes back to economic concerns again.

What do you think?