What about the Next 100?
Obama in Action - Part VIII:
The 100th Day
An American Presidency Project Exclusive Analysis
by John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters
April 30, 2009
SANTA BARBARA—Wednesday April 29 marked President Barack Obama’s 100th day in office. The day was marked by a convulsion of media analysis of the President’s achievements to date far greater than that for Bush or Clinton.
Early-Term Risks
Presidential legacies are rarely determined by events in the first 100 days, but many presidencies have struggled to recover from stumbles in the early months. John F. Kennedy authorized the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. Jimmy Carter fumbled his attempt to cut public works spending. Bill Clinton was handcuffed by a fight over gays in the military.
 Other presidencies have been boosted by unforeseen events. The assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan produced a strong sympathetic reaction across the country. His job approval rating remained high through the passage of his tax cut package in August 1981.
The FDR Standard
In the first 100 days, presidents seek to advance a clear, focused, and distinctive agenda. They hope to avoid major stumbles, to sustain popular support; to enjoy strong partisan majorities in Congress. They need good luck with unanticipated events.
All presidents are compared to FDR who, by day 110, had signed more than a dozen major legislative initiatives.
For FDR’s successors, the first 100 days has rarely been long enough to produce sweeping legislative change across a broad spectrum of policy areas, In 1965, Lyndon Johnson, had secured one of the greatest electoral landslides in history. He enjoyed substantially greater Democratic majorities in Congress than Barack Obama. Of the many major legislative enactments of the 89th Congress, only two passed in the first 100 days.
Particularly in times of crisis, the American people expect much of new presidents. Again the FDR comparison seems relevant, as does Ronald Reagan. After nearly four years of ineffective Republican responses to the depression, FDR needed to reassure the country that the government was willing and able to try to grapple with the problems facing the country.
Roosevelt responded mainly with legislative action, and he was aided by large and supportive majorities in Congress. In 1933, there were few powerful interest groups already mobilized in opposition. By contrast, Obama did not inherit an extended record of governmental passivity. Also unlike FDR, opposing interest groups were mobilizing actively before Obama took the oath of office. On virtually every major issue, Obama faces opposition from large political networks already in place.
Obama’s Repudiation of the Past
For the most part, Obama has passed his initial tests with good marks. He has been successful in repudiating the Reagan/Bush regime in visible ways that have reassured his supporters. He has embraced the challenges of national health insurance, climate change, flattening the income distribution, and reform of financial institutions. Obama articulated high standards for transparency and insulation from special interests, so high that his team will from time to time be vulnerable to charges of hypocrisy. All of these involve, to substantial degree, venturing into uncharted territory and thus pose risks.
Obama’s Strategy of Persuasion
Obama has benefitted from skillful oratory, personal charm and charisma. He has assembled an experienced group of policy planners and administrators to develop new programs. He has used the unilateral powers of the presidency more vigorously than any of his predecessors. He has mixed old and new media strategies to sustain and build popular support.
 Obama and his communications team have been clever at devising novel ways to present Obama in a sympathetic light. In confronting the contemporary era of fragmented media of communication, the president has shown a savvy ability to “find the audience,” as opposed to expecting the audience to come to him. Obama has appeared on the “Tonight Show” with Jay Leno. He publically chose his NCAA basketball tournament picks on ESPN. He reached out to the Latino community by appearing on Spanish language television.
Obama’s innovation is reminiscent of important predecessors. Franklin Roosevelt used the radio with such effect in his “Fireside Chats.” Kennedy who offered televised presidential news conferences almost as a form of entertainment. Reagan started giving regular Saturday radio addresses.
Obama communicates with the Internet generation through weekly addresses on YouTube. He has a YouTube channel and maintains a presence on MySpace. He also appears to be setting a standard for prime time communications by speaking to the public by way of formal news conferences in the White House East Room. Obama's three prime-time news conferences did not set records, but overall his direct availability to the media in formal news conferences exceeded the average.
FDR’s solo news conferences were informal sessions in the Oval Office, not prime-time events covered live in national media.
Frequency of Travel
 President Obama has traveled abroad more than any prior president in the first 100 days—striving to make good on a campaign promise to rebuild the US reputation in the world.
Considering all travel, Obama left the Washington, D.C. area more often than any predecessor except George W. Bush. We hypothesize that Bush traveled as part of a campaign to establish his legitimacy as President following the divisive culmination of the 2000 election.
FDR, by contrast, traveled outside of Washington only once, and he never left the Country in the first 100 days.
Events In Public
 In the first 100 days, Obama engaged in public events on 87 of them. He did two or more events on 54 days. Indeed, Obama has been a nearly ceaseless whirl of activity. By our count, he has taken fewer “days off” during the first 100 than any of his predecessors. His total number of public events was slightly fewer than Bush and Clinton
By contrast, according to the Public Papers, FDR had no public events on 86 of his first 100 days and on no day did he have more than one public event.
The Stroke of a Pen
Obama also used unilateral action more often than any president since FDR. His actions included reversing Bush Administration policies on stem-cell research, abortion, and interrogations of detainees. President Obama engaged in a record 66 instances of public, on the record, unilateral actions. (see graphic above)
 FDR, by our contemporary standards, was low visibility and relatively passive in terms of issuing orders. Working before the days of the Federal Register and obligations to publish significant executive orders, FDR issued dozens of minute executive orders, but very few that we would regard as consequential.
Public Approval
Obama’s public approval, like every other aspect of his performance, has been monitored more assiduously than that of any of his predecessors. Gallup has polled 93 times about Obama in the first 100 days. Gallup polled only eight time about George W. Bush in his first 100 days. Obama’s approval ratings are marginally higher than his immediate predecessors, and his approval has been slightly more stable.
Looking Ahead
The challenges facing Obama at day 100 are formidable. Despite economic recovery efforts of astonishing size and complexity, the immediate news has been of sobering declines in GDP in the first quarter of 2009. Many economists predict that unemployment will continue to rise through 2009. The president also began day 101 news of Chrysler’s bankruptcy.
After some positive signs from the banking sector, experts warn that the global financial system faces more challenges ahead.
There is troubling news from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. The president will have to deal with piracy in the Indian Ocean, and the possibility of a flu pandemic. More surprises surely lie ahead.
So far So Good?
Obama and his team have cleared the first 100 days in good shape. There have been stumbles, but no outright falls or serious injury.
ŠThe American Presidency Project
Citation: John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters, "Obama in Action VIII: Day 100" in The American Presidency Project [online]. Santa Barbara, CA: University of California (hosted), Gerhard Peters (database). Available from World Wide Web: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/obama_in_action_viii_043009.php.
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