President-elect Barack Obama holds a press conference after meeting with the Transition Economic Advisory Board at the Hilton Hotel in Chicago on Friday, November 7, 2008. (Chicago Tribune photo by Zbigniew Bzdak )
by Frank James
Blame Franklin Delano Roosevelt, for it was FDR who set the 100-day standard all presidents have been measured against since.
Fair or not, presidents get a grade for how much they've accomplished after a ridiculously short several months in the Oval Office and President-elect Obama will be no exception, even though his transition aides are already, pre-emptively, trying to lower the bar.
According to the New York Times:
... His team is tamping down expectations of instant action by discouraging talk of a 100-day program.
Good luck with that. As Stephen Hess, the Brookings Institution expert on the presidency says in his new book on presidential transitions "What Do We Do Now?" that's been tried by other presidents, like Richard Nixon.
"But on every Day One Hundred of every new presidency, every presidential scholar in the country will be called by a reporter for his or her assessment of the president's failures."
So new presidents are expected to hit the ground running and that's even more true for Obama since he's dealing with not just the economic and financial crisis but all the promises he made during his campaign, from rapidly unwinding the U.S. position in Iraq to expanding health-care to cutting taxes for those making less than $250,000.
From the sound of it, it appears that Obama's advisers are wisely going try and limit what they try to accomplish legislatively in their first one hundred days since a president and Congress can only handle so much at one time.
Again from the Times.
Mr. Obama's transition advisers studied how Presidents Roosevelt, Kennedy, Johnson, Reagan and Clinton used their first months. The lesson many drew was that even if various agencies moved forward in many directions, a new president must husband his time, energy and political capital for three dominant priorities at most. Several Obama advisers cited Reagan, who concentrated his early efforts on pushing through major tax cuts and increased military spending.
But advisers also worry that putting off sweeping initiatives makes them harder to pass later, when a president's mandate and momentum have faded. Again, they pointed to Mr. Clinton, who delayed his ultimately doomed health care plan while he passed a deficit reduction package and the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The pent-up demand from Democrats who waited out the Bush administration will be enormous. "In the next three months before they take over, the list of demands on the table is going to be staggering, absolutely staggering," said former Representative Jim Leach of Iowa, a Republican who endorsed Mr. Obama during the campaign.
Mr. Obama recognizes that. In an interview on CNN days before the election, he explicitly ranked his priorities, starting with an economic recovery package that would include middle-class tax relief. His second priority, he said, would be energy; third, health care; fourth, tax restructuring; and fifth, education.
Advisers are right to be concerned about not getting Obama's priorities done early since chances are good his approval ratings will fall once his campaign promises hit cold reality of governing.
But Obama may also find that Americans may give him more time since many voters really are vested in his success and if his policies fail to right the listing economy, the consequences will be fairly dire.
A new president who's limited by the number of legislative proposals he and Congress can focus in the first few months can give his presidency the appearance of forward momentum however by using executive orders and it appears Obama is preparing to use that power in a big way.
As the Washington Post reports:
Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team.
A team of four dozen advisers, working for months in virtual solitude, set out to identify regulatory and policy changes Obama could implement soon after his inauguration. The team is now consulting with liberal advocacy groups, Capitol Hill staffers and potential agency chiefs to prioritize those they regard as the most onerous or ideologically offensive, said a top transition official who was not permitted to speak on the record about the inner workings of the transition.
In some instances, Obama would be quickly delivering on promises he made during his two-year campaign, while in others he would be embracing Clinton-era policies upended by President Bush during his eight years in office.
"The kind of regulations they are looking at" are those imposed by Bush for "overtly political" reasons, in pursuit of what Democrats say was a partisan Republican agenda, said Dan Mendelson, a former associate administrator for health in the Clinton administration's Office of Management and Budget. The list of executive orders targeted by Obama's team could well get longer in the coming days, as Bush's appointees rush to enact a number of last-minute policies in an effort to extend his legacy.
Comments
Saw it coming. Lower the bar for a democrat and rise it for Bush.
Posted by: Media Hawk | November 9, 2008 12:40 PM
What are you talking about. The bar for Bush has been so low until even a Limbo dancer couldn't have pass under it. Praise be mediocrity has been restored to so-so as it should and we can now concentrate on excellence again and it's pursuit.
Posted by: Khrish | November 10, 2008 3:50 AM
Considering the gigantic mess Bush leaves for the Democrats, I really don't understand how you can complain.
And may I suggest you actually wait until the 100 days are up until you pass judgement?
You could use the time to figure out what went wrong with the GOP - I think it would really be good and healthy to have a functioning opposition party instead of one who is reflexively obstructionist against Democrats and mirred in ideologically rigid warfare amonst itself while ignoring the reality of a diverse electorate.
Posted by: Candia | November 10, 2008 5:35 AM
Just what we need. Another Clinton. Maybe in 4 years, I'll be proud to be an American. Then again, after Obama's finished, the America our forefathers meant it to be will no longer exist.
Posted by: gran | November 10, 2008 10:21 AM