100 days, 100 nights

When exactly did the 100-day mark become such a touchstone for a presidency? Am I right in not remembering the media — newspapers, TV, cable — making this kind of fuss at the 100-day mark of the Clinton of Bush presidencies?

A presidential term is four years long — 1,461 days — and judging a presidency on its first 100 seems absurd. I know that Franklin Roosevelt managed quite a bit in his first 100; John Kennedy’s first 100 were botched. Barack Obama seems to be doing fairly well, even if he is far more of a centrist than many of his supporters realized.

The issue is not where we stand on April 29 — that has more to do with the media’s Roosevelt fetish and its “new FDR” narrative — but where we go between now and the first Tuesday in November 2012. That’s when the Obama presidency can really be judged.

Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet