Seventy-five years ago March 4, as I wrote here on the anniversary three months ago, Franklin Delano Roosevelt initiated a period of intense activity that would afterwards set the standard – never again attained – for the successful beginning of a President’s term of office. It was subsequently called the “100 Days.”
Of late, when discussion is not focused on who should or should not chosen for Vice President or the new Cabinet, some people have been talking about Senator – or, rather, President – Obama’s first hundred days, offering prescriptions for what he should try to accomplish and what tone he should try to establish during that brief window of opportunity. In the case of former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson and Libertarian talk-show host Neil Boortz, the talk is about the potential for early missteps that could plague him for the rest of his Presidency.
If he wins in November, should President Obama try to discard the whole concept of the 100 Days, which originally was a mere accident? Is it now an obstacle to good governance? And if so, is it even possible to circumvent the inevitable media frenzy surrounding something so deeply entrenched in our political psyche?