Johnson, who had unexpectedly become president as a result of the tragedy in Dallas, was asked not only to assess his first 100 Days but what slogan he might apply to his approach to governing. The fact that most presidents have understood how hard it is repeat FDR’s achievements hasn’t stopped the press and the public from assuming that the 100 Day mark somehow matters. “Nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. “All this will not be finished in the first 100 days,” he famously said in his Inaugural Address. The iconic presidents like JFK and Ronald Reagan signaled that the change would be lasting and alter the basic relationship of the American people and their government but none of them promised to get the work done fast. All modern presidents-even the unelected Gerald Ford who promised to end the “long national nightmare of Watergate”-came into office promising change of some sort or another. Until Trump, presidents have been careful not to try to beat Roosevelt’s record. VIDEO: Presidential Fun Facts The Oval Office has been filled with extraordinary presidents, but did you know about these not-so-famous firsts? In other words, Congress, followed his lead. FDR found he needed only to sign 9 executive orders through his Hundredth Day on June 11 (Presidential terms then started in early March). Although the Roosevelt administration provided the push for these changes, most of this activity came in the form of legislation. He asked Congress to stay in session for what would be about 100 days and the flood of legislative and executive activity later enshrined as part of The Hundred Days ensued-the Economy Act, the Agricultural Adjustment Act, the Tennessee Valley Authority Act, the Home Owner’s Loan Act and the Glass-Steagall Banking Act, the National Recovery Act, the abandonment of the gold standard, the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps and beginning the process of overturning Prohibition by allowing the sale of beer and wine. But like any good politician-and thanks to ambitious aides who encouraged-he sensed an opportunity to move on other fronts associated with the Great Depression. “Roosevelt,” Schlesinger noted, “had first thought of putting through the emergency banking legislation and sending Congress home.” No hundred days of activity, just five. It was the actions of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the 73rd Congress in 1933 that turned the meaning of the concept on its head, making it a symbol of executive success.įranklin Delano Roosevelt, 1932. As for American precedents there is no evidence that George Washington, who was well aware that he was establishing the basic norms of the new American presidency, thought there was anything significant about his first 14 weeks in office. Until the first part of the 20th century, when an historian, journalist or politico used the term “Hundred Days,” they usually meant Napoleon Bonaparte’s ill-fated frenetic activity from the time he escaped from Elba in 1815 until his permanent fall from power after the military defeat at Waterloo. Ronald Reagan signed his signature tax cuts into law on his 206th day in office President Obama signed what would be known as Obamacare on the 368th day of his first term and JFK’s stellar performance in the Cuban Missile Crisis came after his 634th day in office. You wouldn’t know it from the amount of attention President Trump seems to be paying to it, but the 100-day standard is not much of a guide to the future success of failure of a presidency.
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