The first 100 days. As President Biden delivers a big speech, you will hear a lot about his first 100 days between now and Friday which will be his 100th day in office.
What’s the big deal with the first 100 days of a presidency and why has it become a marker for every president in modern times?
It started 88 years ago, in 1933, when FDR, President Roosevelt, first took office. Within his first 100 days in the White House, with the country still suffering from the Great Depression, he got 15 major pieces of legislation approved that helped bring the nation out of the depression.
That success, along with his “fireside chats” made him hugely popular and it helped set the first 100 days of a presidency as a standard on which all presidents since have been judged, fairly or unfairly.
After all, the first 100 days represent less than 10 percent of the days in the four term of a president. But history likes markers, dates and timetables with which to view happenings and their impact.
So as Friday comes when Joe Biden reaches his 100th day in office, there are a lot of things being said, written and posted about how he’s done and how he’s doing as a president.
FDR didn’t have to worry about things said about him on Twitter or on the cable news shows as Biden, and the last few presidents have. Broadcast radio was the only form of communication to a broad audience back then and President Roosevelt used it to his advantage.
Now with the reach and influence of social media, what modern presidents say, how they say it and what they do, in their first 100 days, have an even greater impact on how they are and will be judged by history.
READ MORE about the history of the first 100 days.
(Photo Getty Images)
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