It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.

    - Franklin Delano Roosevelt

    Barack Obama is less than 50 days away from becoming the twelfth American president to face the "First 100 Days" benchmark set by Franklin D. Roosevelt. The eleven presidents before Obama were all kicked in the pants by this highly subjective standard of performance, to varying degrees of severity - Truman got it the worst due to his proximity to the standard-creator, and due to his suddenly being put in charge of the Second World War, of course - and Mr. Obama will be faced with the same comparison come springtime.

    What did FDR do in his first 100 days? Not much if you discount the New Deal; passage of the Emergency Banking Act reopened most Depression-shuttered banks in the country and creation of the FDIC stopped runs on those banks; passage of the Economy Act brought the budgetary chaos under manageable control; the Agricultural Adjustment Act brought farmers back from the brink with the creation of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, which gave rise to such beneficial entities as the Resettlement Administration, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Rural Electrification Administration and the Farm Security Administration; and by repealing the Volstead Act and ending Prohibition, Roosevelt and everyone else in the country could have themselves a legal drink while pondering how much had gotten accomplished in those first 100 days.

    Pretty stiff competition for any president to live up to. The eleven presidents after FDR all pretty much failed to measure up, and Mr. Obama is in line to become the twelfth to fall short. There is no shame in this; it is an impossible benchmark to match, given the circumstances. Rather than debate the relative merits, or lack thereof, involved in the "First 100 Days" standard, let us instead take a few moments to do a little compare-and-contrast of recent presidential history. Three American presidents have been in office since 1993 - Clinton, Bush and Obama. How do their records stack up against each other?

    In his first 100 days, President Clinton signed the Family Medical Leave Act, which made it far easier for families in general, and women specifically, to stay in the workforce without sacrificing parenthood. He abolished the gag rule that prohibited clinics that received federal funding from counseling on abortion. He launched a major initiative to expand childhood immunizations. He reached out a helping hand to Boris Yeltsin and the struggling Russian Republic. He got snarled up on the issue of gays in the military, and was badly roughed up over his stimulus package. The World Trade Center was bombed, and the Branch Davidians were burned out. He needed three chances to nail down an attorney general who didn't have problems with illegal alien nannies.

    On balance, Mr. Clinton got off to a rocky but pretty decent start that claimed several truly progressive victories for the American people. Mr. Clinton was followed, of course, by Mr. Bush, who charted a substantially different course in his first 100 days.

    Before the first May of his tenure, Bush blocked federal funding to international groups that counseled on abortion. He put forth legislation that pushed standardized testing and fiscal punishment for failing schools that could have used fiscal assistance. He put forth an initiative to give federal funding to religious groups whose beliefs matched his own. He sent a $1.6 trillion tax cut to Congress which all but eviscerated the budget surplus left by his predecessor. He did away with a proposal to decrease carbon dioxide emissions, and followed that up with a rejection of the Kyoto Treaty. A US Navy submarine piloted by Bush donors crashed through a Japanese fishing boat. A US spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter and crashed, delivering 24 Americans into Chinese custody for 11 days. Mr. Bush apologized to the Chinese for all the fuss and asked if the captive Americans all had bibles.

    That kind of record pretty much speaks for itself.

    President Obama is only a few days past halfway to the century mark, but has managed to amass an impressive record nonetheless. Since his inauguration, he has ordered the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention center within the next year, ordered a comprehensive review of America's detention policies, and flatly declared that torture will no longer be tolerated. He has enhanced the Freedom of Information Act and vowed greater transparency in the workings of government. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act will help Americans receive the pay they deserve regardless of age, race or gender. He championed a massive stimulus package that will greatly assist every state and millions of American workers.

    He created the Middle Class Task Force and the Economic Advisory Board to focus on stabilizing and enhancing the American economy. He established comprehensive restrictions on executive pay and bonuses. He signed the State Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (SCHIP), which offered insurance coverage to 11 million poor children. His Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan offered aid to millions of Americans who are in danger of losing their homes. By Executive Order, he established the White House Office of Urban Affairs, and signed another Executive Order making it harder for federal contractors to avoid using union labor.

    Obama signed an Executive Order curbing the "loot and run" environmental deregulation orders signed by Bush just before he left office. He signed another Executive Order lifting Bush's ban on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. He tasked the Department of Energy to require higher efficiency standards for all household appliances. He re-reversed the Gag Rule policy on federal funding for clinics that counsel on abortion. He signed a memorandum that directed more than $20 million for "urgent refugee and migration needs" in Gaza. His half-a-loaf Iraq withdrawal plan, for all its myriad flaws, will remove tens of thousands of American troops from that war zone within the next two years.

    All that in 50 days?

    Hm.

    Looks like FDR might lose his title before the first of May comes along. President Obama seems hell-bent on becoming the first president in 76 years to actually live up to, if not surpass, the "First 100 Days" hype created by Mr. Roosevelt.

    We'll see.

www.truthout.org/031309A