A hundred days
WHEN US President Donald Trump’s replacement for Obamacare did not fly in the US Congress, it was a triple blow.
A blow to his campaign promise that he would immediately repeal Obamacare. Another blow to his boast that he was a superb negotiator. And the most lethal of all blows, to his leadership; that despite the Republican majority in the US Congress, he couldn’t convince them to support his pet program.
Naturally, the US media highlighted and bannered it. And there was no mistaking the TV anchors’ snicker, gloat and smirk practically saying “What now, bright guy?”
I lament the posturing, but I can also see where they’re coming from. Here he is, this political neophyte with a surprising victory as US President who continues to bellyache about the “crooked media.”
It must sting hard that he leads the most powerful country in the world, but is not considered the most powerful leader in the world. It’s Russia’s Vladimir Putin instead.
Now, inked in the chronicles of Trump’s first 100 days is this debacle of his proposed health care act .
Trump allies have rushed to their hero, even calling the tradition of the 100-day performance rule as a myth. Still others say 100 days are too short for the complex and complicated world that the 21st century is.
Still, this performance metric has been used to measure all US presidents since Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) set it up, though not officially.
Presidential historians say that when FDR took office in March 1933, the US had fallen into the Great Depression. The banking system had collapsed, unemployment was at 25 percent, and the stock market had plunged.
Knowing his response had to be bold, FDR declared a bank holiday, thus closing all banks for four days. He flooded Congress with bills meant to save farmers from insolvency, and to put thousands of jobless to construct infrastructure and parks.
By end of summer, Congress had passed 15 major bills. When people looked back, they saw that FDR had done a lot in just 100 days. He never planned the 100 days, just to do a lot.
Thus began the yardstick for every president from then on, a standard that historians say always saw other presidents fall in the shadow of FDR.
Trump must level up as well, especially because of his campaign slogan to “Make America Great Again.” His master promise creates his very own pressure to deliver, and to move his country forward.
What I’d like to truly see is America’s and the free world’s moving forward after he has solved the ISIS challenge. Did he not say “Only I know how to stop ISIS?” Indeed, let’s see what he can come up with now that he has only ten days to go before his 100 days hit zero.
While 100 days do not tell the end of the story, they do tell the end of the beginning. A survey by a leading business school in Lausanne, Switzerland showed that more than 70 % of the human resources executives strongly agreed that success or failure during the transition period is a strong predictor of overall job success or failure.