We measure time in days, weeks months, years, even quarters- 3 months.
So why 100 days of Obama? What is the significance of 100 days? Why not measure 3 months or first quarter?
I think it is just an arbitrary marker that is a nice, round number. Presumably people feel a new President should get 100 days or so before meaningful assessments of how they go about their job and the direction they want to push can be discernible.
When Roosevelt was elected, he kept Congress in session for 100 days, and passed through his New Deal program.
Because people are fascinated by round numbers. The evaluating of the new President (or other position) is done by the press.
And the first couple of weeks are obviously too early, while waiting a whole year is too long for the press. 100 days is a bit over 3 months, so it works as some indication.
The tradition of analyzing a new President’s term after 100 days goes back to Franklin Roosevelt who promised to push the bulk of his New Deal programs through Congress within 100 days of being sworn in. As to why he picked 100, you’d have to ask him that.
But you can’t because he’s dead.
The world will never know…
Keep in mind that in 1933, we were still on the old schedule under which Congress didn’t normally meet until December. It was novel for a President to do anything other than submit nominations to the Senate right at the beginning of his term.
Because of the economic crisis in 1933, however, Roosevelt called both houses into special session in March, and they sat until June 15–exactly 100 days after the beginning of his term. It was natural to refer to this period of activity as the “First One Hundred Days”.
Most of the signature New Deal legislation was not passed during this period. One of the most important measures which was passed, the National Industrial Recovery Act, was later ruled unconstutional. But again, the burst of activity was almost unprecedented, and the First Hundred Days concept stuck.
The more important and lasting New Deal legislation–Social Security, the Wagner Act, Glass-Steagall, and more–passed during the “Second Hundred Days”, in 1935.
Congress now sits in session at the beginning of every presidential term, and in homage to FDR, we will probably be tortured with “First Hundred Days” analysis for every president until doomsday. But it’s silly–Congress will sit for most of the year, and there’s no urgency to wrap up most bills by April.
I am so sick of hearing “The First 100 Days,” I’m avoiding watching the news all week. They keep repeating it like a religious mantra, as if it had some significance.
I haven’t really noticed it used much prior to the current administration. Mr. Obama is facing the most serious financial crisis since the time that FDR took office, and a stimulus plan was a big part of his campaign, and FDR was a Democrat, so the analogy is natural.
That and both his primary and general election opponents made an issue of thier experience, and ability to be “ready on day one” and “hit the ground running”…so Obama’s performance out of the gate is seen as a test of his fitness to hold office.
I really tried to stick to facts in the spirit of GQ. If anyone feels I have strayed to political opinion, please feel free to take issue with it IN THE PIT.
During the campaign, there was no mention of a stimulus plant. The country was doing fine until just shortly before he took over (I’m not pinning that on him; just mentioning that his campaign wasn’t about stimulus, but representing populist sentiments).
“This officially commences the Hundred Days. Nothing can harm me until the Ascension… Gosh, I’m feeling chipper, haha! Who’s for a root beer?”
From the New Progressive Bible
(Provided by followers of the Church of Gore)
The Book of Liberalassininies
Chapter 1, Verse 4:
“And on the One Hundredth Day, the Obamassiah rose the economy from the dead.”
My edition of *Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable *traces the phrase back to the ‘Hundred Days’ between Napoleon’s arrival at the Tuileries on 20 March 1815 after his escape from Elba and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII, on 28 June 1815. It suggests that the concept goes back to the address of the prefect of Paris to Louis XVIII on that occasion: