100 Days

Did Obama Surpass FDR?

May be getting more for the money.

President Roosevelt’s first 100 days are the standard by which all subsequent presidents’ first 100 days have been judged. Did President Obama surpass them? Writing for The New Republic, Alan Brinkley comments, “The Obama administration didn't push through the sheer number of initiatives of the New Deal's first months—but its achievements are impressive nevertheless, and appear more likely to create a better ratio between good programs and bad ones.” Obama, believe it or not, may also have had more to juggle: Roosevelt, in his opening days, didn’t face any international crises. “Perhaps most importantly,” Brinkley writes, “Obama has taken a shaken nation, deeply disillusioned with government, and helped it believe again that politics is not necessarily a dirty word, that progress can be made, and that government can at least sometimes be trusted.”