The Most Vital 100 Days Since FDR - Biden’s first 100 days - Did any U.S. president ever have a more ominous first

(FDR coined the term in July 1933, when he gave a radio address reflecting on “the crowding events of the hundred days which had been devoted to the starting of the wheels of the New Deal.”) What the two share in common is the urgent need to show the American people and the world that, amid turmoil accompanied by widespread disillusionment with Washington, government can still work at the most fun. [...] Two decades ago, the great presidential historian Richard Neustadt famously denigrated the hundred days standard as bad history, arguing that FDR’s tenure was the exception because of the gravity of the crisis he faced, the incompetence of his predecessor to address it, and—crucially—his total control of Congress. [...] The Social Security Act of 1935, for example, was part of FDR’s extraordinary “second hundred days.” What was actually a total of 177 days in 1935 also included legislation strengthening the Federal Reserve Board; the creation of the Rural Electrification Administration; and the Wagner Act establishing the National Labor Relations Board. [...] This may be the most unsettling dimension to the hundred days framework: Because so many modern presidents hew to it, it sends a message of dysfunction and unsteadiness to the rest of the world. [...] And this may be the most unsettling dimension to the hundred days framework: Because so many modern presidents hew to it, it sends a message of dysfunction and unsteadiness to the rest of the world, with the very idea of U.