100 DAYS
Day of the new
administration
Franklin D. Roosevelt D 32nd president
■ Inauguration speech: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
2
9
28
■ March 5, 1933: Drafts Emergency Banking Act. Passed by Congress March 9.
■ March 12: Gives first fireside chat, about the banking crisis.
■ March 31: Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps bill is passed, putting the
jobless to work on federal projects.
70 ■ May 12: Federal Emergency Relief Act is signed into law, forming new agency to
create work programs.
■
76 May 18: Signs Tennessee Valley Authority Act into law.
85 ■ May 27: Creates the Securities and Exchange Commission.
■ IN OFFICE:
March 4, 1933 to April 12, 1945
■ DEFEATED:
President Herbert Hoover
■ ELECTORAL VOTE
MARGIN: 472-59
■ POPULAR VOTE
MARGIN: +18%
■ CONGRESS: Both
chambers held by Democrats
Harry S. Truman D 33rd president
5
■ April 16, 1945: Address to Congress: “Our demand has been, and it remains:
27
76
97
■ May 8: Announces Germany’s surrender, end of war in Europe, on radio.
unconditional surrender!”
13 PRESIDENTS
W
hen he took office as the 32nd president on March 4, 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt
did so at the peak of a national panic, the Great Depression. The economy was
crippled, millions were jobless, and faith in the nation’s banks was crumbling.
Roosevelt met the emergency with an unprecedented course of presidential leadership. One
day after taking office, he called before a special session of Congress for all the nation’s banks
to close for four days, making provisions for them to be reopened after federal inspectors had
declared them secure. Congress passed the Emergency Banking Act on March 9.
Roosevelt seized this momentum. From March 9 until June 15, 1933, he pushed through a
Democratic-controlled Congress a record number of bills addressing the economic crisis. New
laws dealt with farm production, relief funds for the needy, fair business practices, workers’
rights and public works projects. The flurry of legislation wore a grass-roots label:
the New Deal. Roosevelt explained his initiatives to the people in a series of “fireside chats,”
his famous radio addresses to the public.
■ June 28: Signs United Nations Charter in San Francisco.
By originating the concept, Roosevelt not only set the pace for the 100-day dash, he made it a
standard for modern presidents to follow, with varying degrees of perceived success.
■ July 17: During the 18-day Potsdam Conference, Truman meets with British Prime
We look at FDR’s honeymoon period and those of the 12 presidents who have followed.
Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Josef Stalin, to discuss postwar
control of a partitioned Germany and to call for Japan’s unconditional surrender.
Truman informs allies of the existence of U.S. atomic weapons.
■ IN OFFICE:
■ SUCCEEDED:
■ CONGRESS: Both
April 12, 1945 to Jan. 20, 1953
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
chambers held by Democrats
R
Dwight D. Eisenhower
idealism with weakness.”
34th president
stalemated war there.
■ Inauguration speech: “A people that values its privileges above its principles soon
loses both.”
18 ■ Feb. 6, 1953: He signs an executive order suspending wage and salary controls
that had been put in place in 1950, allowing collective bargaining to resume.
23 ■ Feb. 11: Eisenhower denies clemency for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, sentenced to
death for divulging atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.
■ IN OFFICE:
■ DEFEATED:
■ ELECTORAL VOTE
■ POPULAR VOTE
■ CONGRESS: Both
Jan. 20, 1953 to Jan. 20, 1961
Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson
MARGIN: 442-89
MARGIN: +11%
chambers held by Republicans
88
to
92
■ IN OFFICE:
■ DEFEATED:
■ ELECTORAL VOTE
■ POPULAR VOTE
■ CONGRESS: Both
Jan. 20, 1961 to Nov. 22, 1963
Vice President Richard M. Nixon
MARGIN: 303-219
MARGIN: +0.1%
chambers held by Democrats
Lyndon B. Johnson D
6
■ SUCCEEDED:
■ CONGRESS: Both
Nov. 22, 1963 to Jan. 20, 1969
President John F. Kennedy
chambers held by Democrats
Richard M. Nixon R
■ DEFEATED:
■ ELECTORAL VOTE
■ POPULAR VOTE
■ CONGRESS: Both
Jan. 20, 1969 to Aug. 9, 1974
Vice President Hubert Humphrey
MARGIN: 301-191
MARGIN: +0.7%
chambers held by Democrats
that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts.”
■
31 Sept. 8: A month after Nixon’s resignation, Ford pardons him, and his own
approval ratings drop.
39 ■ Sept. 16: Ford offers amnesty to tens of thousands of draft evaders and deserters
from Vietnam-era military service.
■
60 Oct. 8: Speaking before Congress, Ford unveils his “Whip Inflation Now” campaign,
a series of measures designed to curb rapidly rising prices.
chambers held by Democrats
Obama is on pace to exceed the
number of such acts taken by any
other post-FDR president during
his first 100 days. Unilateral acts
include executive orders,
proclamations and memoranda.
(selected presidents charted).
REAGAN
CARTER
EISENHOWER
70
■ March 30: Reagan is shot by John Hinckley Jr. as he exits the Hilton Hotel in
■ March 26: Signs executive order creating Presidential Council on Integrity and
Efficiency, charged with seeking out corruption and waste.
Washington, D.C. The bullet causes a collapsed lung, but on April 11, Reagan is
released from the hospital. His approval rating was at 73 percent at that time.
■ DEFEATED:
President Jimmy Carter
■ ELECTORAL VOTE
MARGIN: 489-49
■ POPULAR VOTE
MARGIN: +10%
■ CONGRESS: Senate
held by Republicans
41st president
18
■ Feb. 6, 1989: Bush proposes a multibillion-dollar bailout of the struggling savings
48
■ March 9: Senate rejects Bush’s nominee for secretary of defense, former
91
■ April 20: Signs executive order giving control of national space exploration policy
and loan industry.
Texas Sen. John Tower.
to newly created National Space Council. Pres. Clinton later reverses this action.
■ DEFEATED:
Mass. Gov. Michael Dukakis
D
Bill Clinton
■ ELECTORAL VOTE
MARGIN: 426-11
■ POPULAR VOTE
MARGIN: +8%
■ CONGRESS: Both
chambers held by Democrats
42nd president
5
17
28
■ Jan. 25, 1993: Clinton names wife, Hillary, to be head of a health care task force.
89
■ April 18: Agrees with plan to use tear gas to end standoff at Branch Davidian cult
■ IN OFFICE:
Jan. 20, 1993 to Jan. 20, 2001
■ Feb. 5: Signs Family and Medical Leave Act.
■ Feb. 17: Announces budget-balancing plan, including tax hikes on the wealthy and
cuts in spending.
compound in Waco, Texas. About 80 members die in a fire the next day.
■ DEFEATED:
President George H. W. Bush
George W. Bush R
■ ELECTORAL VOTE
MARGIN: 370-168
■ POPULAR VOTE
MARGIN: +6%
■ CONGRESS: Both
chambers held by Democrats
43rd president
■ Inauguration speech: “Enemies of liberty and our country should make no mistake:
10
19
68
■ IN OFFICE:
Jan. 20, 2001 to Jan. 20, 2009
America remains engaged ... shaping a balance of power that favors freedom.”
■ Jan. 22, 2001: Ends U.S. funding for international centers that offer family
planning and perform abortions.
■ Jan. 29: Creates Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.
■ Feb. 8: Unveils $1.6 trillion tax cut proposal.
■ March 28: Announces he will not implement Kyoto Protocol, the international
agreement to curb greenhouses gases, citing concern for the economy.
■ DEFEATED:
Vice President Al Gore
Barack Obama D
■ ELECTORAL VOTE
MARGIN: 271-266
■ POPULAR VOTE
MARGIN: -1%
■ CONGRESS: House held by
Republicans, Senate 50-50
44th president
■ Inauguration speech: “Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves
off, and begin again the work of remaking America.”
To see an updated version of this chart, go to
www.presidency.ucsb.edu/
2
■ Jan. 21, 2009: Obama calls for transparency and openness in government. He
3
■ Jan. 22: Moves to close down detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
29
■ Feb. 17: Signs $787 billlion economic stimulus bill into law and approves an
30
■ Feb. 18: Obama unveils $75 billlion mortgage relief plan.
instructs agencies to be more responsive to Freedom of Information Act requests.
increase in the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
49 ■ March 9: He reverses the Bush-era ban on federal funding of stem cell research.
70 ■ March 30: He unveils a plan giving General Motors and Chrysler a chance to restructure.
71 to 78 ■ March 31 to April 7: Obama travels to Europe and pays a visit to Iraq.
FDR
OBAMA
■ Feb. 18, 1981: Unveils an economic plan including $41.4 billion in tax cuts.
■ IN OFFICE:
Jan. 20, 1989 to Jan. 20, 1993
Through Day 88 (April 18): 58 unilateral acts
UNILATERAL ACTS
40th president
community organizations spread like stars throughout the nation, doing good.”
■ Aug. 9, 1974: Following Nixon’s resignation, Ford says: “This is an hour of history
President Richard M. Nixon
■ CONGRESS: Both
chambers held by Democrats
30
66
3
Aug. 9, 1974 to Jan. 20, 1977
■ POPULAR VOTE
MARGIN: +2%
■ Inauguration speech: “I have spoken of a thousand points of light, of all the
38th president
■ CONGRESS: Both
■ ELECTORAL VOTE
MARGIN: 297-240
by what is right with America.”
■ IN OFFICE:
■ SUCCEEDED:
■ DEFEATED:
President Gerald R. Ford
George H. W. Bush R
37th president
■ IN OFFICE:
dependence on foreign oil.
■ Inauguration speech: “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured
one another – until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well
as our voices.”
54 ■ March 14, 1969: As part of the continuing Cold War with the Soviet Union, Nixon
asks Congress to approve an anti-ballistic missile system.
57 ■ March 17: Nixon, who had campaigned on a promise to end the Vietnam War,
orders “Operation Breakfast,” a series of secret attacks by B-52 bombers on North
Vietnamese supply lines in Cambodia.
1
government. It reduces White House and executive branch staff size.
■ IN OFFICE:
Jan. 20, 1981 to Jan. 20, 1989
■ Inauguration speech: “We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at
Gerald R. Ford R
■ April 18: Unveils an energy plan calling for increased coal production and reduced
■ April 6: Signs the Reorganization Act, a bill designed to streamline the federal
solution to our problem.”
■ Nov. 27, 1963: Address to Congress: “All I have I would have given gladly not to be
■ IN OFFICE:
89
■ Feb. 2: Signs Emergency Natural Gas Act in response to a shortage.
■ Inauguration speech: “In this present (economic) crisis, government is not the
36th president
standing here today,” Johnson said, five days after Kennedy’s assassination in
Dallas.
8 ■ Nov. 29: He appoints the Warren Commission to investigate the killings of both
Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald.
47 ■ Jan. 8, 1964: He urges Congress to follow social policies of special importance to
Kennedy: civil rights, fighting poverty. This becomes the core of Johnson’s Great
Society agenda.
■ Jan. 21, 1977: Carter pardons Vietnam War draft evaders, a campaign promise.
Ronald Reagan R
35th president
can do for your country.” Youngest president when inaugurated at age 43.
■ March 1, 1961: Issues executive order creating Peace Corps, an agency that sends
young Americans to poor countries, working to improve living standards.
■ April 17-20: Bay of Pigs fiasco. CIA-trained and U.S.-backed Cuban exiles invade
southern Cuba in futile attempt to topple its communist leader, Fidel Castro.
Lacking air cover, the invaders are defeated by Cuban forces and Kennedy publicly
acknowledges failure.
2
14
77
■ IN OFFICE:
Jan. 20, 1977 to Jan. 20, 1981
■ Inauguration speech: “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you
41
39th president
■ Inauguration speech: “We are a purely idealistic nation, but let no one confuse our
■ Nov. 29, 1952: As president-elect, Eisenhower visits Korea to seek a way to end the
John F. Kennedy D
D
Jimmy Carter
1
10
20
30
40
50
DAYS IN OFFICE
60
70
80
■ IN OFFICE:
Jan. 20, 2009 to present
Sources: McClatchy Tribune, CBS News, University of Texas, New York Times, White House, the American Presidency Project, Associated Press file photographs
■ DEFEATED:
Ariz. Sen. John McCain
■ ELECTORAL VOTE
MARGIN: 365-173
■ POPULAR VOTE
MARGIN: +7%
■ CONGRESS: Both
chambers held by Democrats
ROBERT DORRELL [email protected]