It's not a perfect measure, but it's a useful one—the 100-day standard for gauging presidential effectiveness. The underlying truth is that presidents tend to be most effective when they first take office, when their leadership style seems fresh and new, when the aura of victory is still powerful, and when their impact on Congress is usually at its height. There is nothing magic about the number, and many presidential aides over the years have complained that it is an artificial yardstick. But it has been used by the public, the media, and scholars as a gauge of presidential success and activism since Franklin D. Roosevelt pioneered the 100-day concept when he took office in 1933. He was faced with the calamity of the Depression—and he moved with unprecedented dispatch to address the problem. "The first hundred days of the New Deal have served as a model for future presidents of bold leadership and executive-legislative harmony," writes Cambridge University historian Anthony Badger in "FDR: The First Hundred Days." In this series, U.S. News looks at the most far-reaching 100-day periods in presidential history, starting with FDR. The series will run each week on Thursdays.
Faced with the spreading catastrophe of the Depression in 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt knew from the start that what Americans wanted most of all was reassurance that under his leadership, they could weather the storm. Amid shattering rates of unemployment, bank failures, and a widespread loss of confidence, FDR said in his inaugural speech March 4: "This nation asks for action, and action now. Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require."
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Presidents' First 100 DaysThis began an unprecedented period of experimentation during which Roosevelt tried different methods to ease the Depression; if they failed, he tried something else. His success in winning congressional approval became the stuff of legend and established FDR as the most effective president in dealing with Congress during the first 100 days.
The circumstances that Roosevelt faced were unique. Banks were shutting down. Depositors were losing their life's savings. Businesses were running out of enough cash to keep going. At least 25 percent of American workers were unemployed. Many Americans felt it was a national emergency.
"When Roosevelt took power on March 4, 1933, many influential Americans doubted the capacity of a democratic government to act decisively enough to save the country," writes historian Anthony Badger in "FDR: The First Hundred Days." "Machine guns guarded government buildings. The newspapers and his audience responded most enthusiastically to Roosevelt's promises in his inaugural to assume wartime powers if necessary. That sense of emergency certainly made Congress willing to give FDR unprecedented power." Adds political scientist William Leuchtenburg in "The FDR Years": "Roosevelt came to office at a desperate time, in the fourth year of a worldwide depression that raised the gravest doubts about the future of Western civilization."
The new president immediately established a new, infectious atmosphere of optimism. Even Sen. Hiram Johnson, a Republican from California, conceded, "The admirable trait in Roosevelt is that he has the guts to try.... He does it all with the rarest good nature.... We have exchanged for a frown in the White House a smile. Where there were hesitation and vacillation, weighing always the personal political consequences, feebleness, timidity, and duplicity, there are now courage and boldness and real action."
Roosevelt immediately called Congress into special session and kept it there for three months. He found that the Democrats who were in control were eager to do his bidding, and even some Republicans were cooperative. Raymond Moley, a member of FDR's inner circle, said many legislators "had forgotten to be Republicans or Democrats" as they worked together to relieve the crisis.
FDR quickly won congressional passage for a series of social, economic, and job-creating bills that greatly increased the authority of the federal government—the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, which supplied states and localities with federal money to help the jobless; the Civil Works Administration to create jobs during the first winter of his administration; and the Works Progress Administration, which replaced FERA, pumped money into circulation, and concentrated on longer-term projects. The Public Works Administration focused on creating jobs through heavy construction in such areas as water systems, power plants, and hospitals. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. protected bank accounts. The Civilian Conservation Corps provided jobs for unemployed young men. The Tennessee Valley Authority boosted regional development. Also approved were the Emergency Banking Act, the Farm Credit Act, and the National Industrial Recovery Act.
In all, Roosevelt got 15 major bills through Congress in his first 100 days. "Congress doesn't pass legislation anymore—they just wave at the bills as they go by," said humorist Will Rogers.
"Never before had a president converted so many promises into so much legislation so quickly," wrote historian James McGregor Burns in "The Lion and the Fox."
This was only part of a vast array of government programs that Roosevelt called the New Deal, and collectively they represented a revolution as the nation shifted from a limited central government to an extremely powerful one. Through it all, FDR bonded with everyday Americans by means of his speeches and "fireside chats"—homespun radio talks that reached millions of listeners as the president explained his objectives and convinced his fellow citizens that he was their champion.
"Mr. Roosevelt thinks and talks a great deal about government," wrote Anne O'Hare McCormick in the New York Times March 26, 1933. "He has very pronounced ideas on the functions of the Presidency. He believes that the President is literally the leader of the people, particularly in the development of ideas. He believes that at every turning point of history some one rises up who can enunciate and in a sense personify the new direction of the public mind and will. In his view America has reached such a crossroads. He does not go so far as to speak of himself as the leader of the economic revolution now in progress, but there is no doubt that he considers the President of the United States at this juncture the instrument by which profound and necessary changes in the American system are to be effected."
FDR also understood that his effectiveness would be at its height on Capitol Hill at the start of his term. "From long experience," wrote political scientist Richard Neustadt, "the judgment on the Hill appears to be that in the first weeks after the inauguration, most Americans wish their new president well and want him to succeed, with partisanship relatively low, interest in him relatively high, and interest fueled by curiosity about him in his new, never-before-seen capacity, not as one party's candidate but as the country's magistrate. The congressional instinct, therefore, crossing party lines, is to repress most overt signs of rampant competition until that public mood is seen to fade, as judged by media reactions, constituent expressions, and polls. Then, as an institution, Congress bounces back to its accustomed stance of vocal, procedural, and substantive competitiveness with the president."
Much of that dynamic has changed, especially the notion of partisanship being suspended in the early weeks of a new presidency. As President Barack Obama is learning today, the political opposition rarely gives any chief executive a break anymore.
All the more reason to consider Roosevelt's first 100 days unique.
Historians still debate whether FDR's programs actually helped to end the Depression or whether it was World War II that did the trick. He created the New Deal, a huge social and economic experiment, and it's clear in retrospect that some of his ideas worked better than others.
But it's also clear that FDR fundamentally expanded the reach and power of the federal government, which most Americans now accept, especially in times of crisis. And that marked a monumental change in American life.
