From 0-100: Presidents move at varying speeds
FDR: Setting the standard
Franklin Roosevelt’s burst of productivity gave rise to U.S. history’s 100-day benchmark for new presidents.
Roosevelt came to office during the Great Depression, with 1 in 4 workers idle, more than 80 percent of the stock market’s value gone, farmers destitute, urban dwellers in breadlines, and banks failing at an alarming rate, eliminating the savings of millions. Fellow Democrats controlled the House and Senate.
FDR immediately declared a temporary national closure of banks to stop panic withdrawals, called a special session of Congress and won passage of an emergency law to stabilize the banking system.
He came forward with a flurry of legislation that set the pillars of the New Deal in place within his first 100 days, “the most concentrated period of U.S. reform in U.S. history,” say Alan Brinkley and Davis Dyer in “The Reader’s Companion to the American Presidency.”
JFK: A slow beginning
John F. Kennedy was not a high achiever in his first 100 days, a period marked by the bungled Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba and the Soviet Union’s launch of the first human into outer space.
Ford: Doomed from the start
Richard Nixon’s resignation in disgrace made Gerald Ford president on Aug. 9, when he declared “our long national nightmare is over.” A burst of relief and popularity followed, but his decision a month later to pardon Nixon sank the public’s estimation of him, and that never recovered.
Reagan: Laying groundwork
Ronald Reagan took office with big plans. He got off to a fast start — not byac hieving a mountain of legislation. Rather, he used his powers of persuasion with lawmakers to soften the ground for the most consequential tax, spending and government overhaul Congress had seen in decades. After more than two months in office, Reagan was shot in an assassination attempt.
Clinton: Courting controversy
With Congress under Democratic control, Bill Clinton promised to overhaul health care, guaranteeing coverage for everyone. That became a drawn-out failure. Clinton’s early months were dominated by controversies over his appointments; his first two choices for attorney general flopped, as did his first choice to head the Justice Department’s civil rights division.