Obama and the Pre-100 Days

Franklin D. Roosevelt, almost universally ranked as one of the great presidents of the 20^th century—indeed, in the history of our Republic—won the White House in a landslide from a voting public that blamed Herbert Hoover, if not for the Great Depression itself, then for reacting to it slowly and uncertainly.

In the final weeks before the 1932 election, there had been signs that the United States’ economy was righting itself; Hoover, perhaps belatedly, had enlisted the federal government in the cause. It was too late to help Hoover, of course, and whatever forward momentum that had existed on Election Day promptly ended. Americans were about to experience their most grim presidential transition since 1860.

In that dark winter of 1932, the Great Depression reached its worst depths. As more and more banks failed in January and February, the incoming president did…nothing. Today, Franklin Roosevelt’s first term is remembered for the burst of activity of its first 100 days, but that action came 100 days too late. Wanting nothing to do with his predecessor, or his economic plans, Roosevelt kept Hoover at arms length. Certainly, FDR’s political instincts were sound: His shunning of the outgoing president helped solidify Hoover’s standing as a pariah for the ensuing five decades, and set the stage for Roosevelt's 1936 reelection. But it came at a cost to the country. There was a vacuum of leadership when the nation needed it most—and for several months. In 1932, the inauguration was held in March instead of January (the last year that this was true), a haitus that proved too long a time for our ship of state to essentially have no one at the conn.

At the risk of offending devotees of Saint Franklin, Barack Obama is doing it better. Obama made the point three times already that America has only one president at a time. Yet he's done this not to excuse inaction, but to remind the country that he cannot do everything he wants to do...just yet. The President-elect has already put his markers down on economic policy, and he did it directly to President Bush, whom he visited at the White House less than a week after his election. He treated Bush graciously—try to imagine FDR draping his arm around Hoover in front of the cameras the way Obama has done with Bush—while negotiating firmly with him. Yes, America has only one president at a time, but in the dark winter of 1932, it was almost as though America had no president at all. This is healthier.