First 100 Days in Office: Nonsense!

The President, the Media, Republicans and Democrats alike, they all make a big hoopla over what is done within the first 100 days in office.  I say, “What of it!”

So what?”

What’s so important about the first 100 days?  Why not the first 50 or 75 or 300?

If I remember my history well enough, it all started with F. D. Roosevelt.  It was a good PR scheme on his part, and it stuck.  It was his way of boasting about his accomplishments, boasting about how fast and quick, how constructive and productive he was in his, well, his first 100 days in office.

Apparently it’s a measure that’s been used ever since.  “Mr. President,” reporters eagerly ask, “what have you, what will you, what do you plan to accomplish in your first 100 days in office?”  “Oh, I’m so glad that you asked,” The President replies, “First I plan to do this, then I plan to do that; you’ll see, I’m going to change the world in my first 100 Days in office!”  And I say, “Please!!  Get real.”

Enough already!  It’s manufactured.  It’s artificial.  There’s nothing magical or extraordinary or super special about a president’s first 100 days in office.  It’s a false start, a set-up for media applause or derogation, a meaningless measure when it comes to the real significance of a president’s term of office.

Turn on the news and what do you hear: “It’s now day 51 of the president’s first 100 days….  It’s now day 75 of the first 100 days in office….  We’re now only one week short of the president’s first 100 days in office!”  Oh my!  The Media refers to these first 100 days with such earnestness that it’s as if it were enchanted, hallowed time to be revered by all.

I for one am tired of this false artificially constructed measure of a President’s success or failure in office.

First of all, it puts ridiculous and unwarranted pressure on the president to show that he (or she) is productive and really getting things done.  It can (and often does) lead to sloppy work due to rushed procedures in order to see quick results.  And, for an office like the presidency, that’s a bad way to go about getting one’s business done.

Secondly, it is a poor measure for what really counts in the office and work of the presidency.  Real time lasting change requires properly applied procedures with adequate processes, along with a substantial amount of patience.  In other words, to produce anything of value usually requires a good amount of time.  The first 100 days in office just won’t cut it for quality time with an aim toward quality results.

Thirdly, it’s myopic, that is, short-sighted in its perspective.  It is probably safe to say that one cannot really measure the quality of the person holding the highest office in the nation until he or she is well into his or her 3rd year of office.  Why is this?  The first two years in office are essentially formative years, where the office is shaping the individual (as much if not more so than the individual is supposedly shaping the office).  Indeed, most presidents who have had the opportunity to hold a second term in office will admit that they did not find their stride, come into the fullness of their office and position, until after they entered their second term of office.

For these reasons and more, the first 100 Days in office is a very poor indicator of how or what or how well the president is, was, or will be doing in office as president.

So I say to the Media, let it go.  Stop using it as a marker or a handle to make or present the news of the presidency.  It’s a gimmick.  We don’t need gimmicks.  We have enough of them already.  Get real and keep it real.  I don’t care about the first 100 days.  I care about each and every day, week, and month, especially as they add up and become seasons and years and turn from one term into two terms.

Soon the so-called president’s auspices first 100 days in office will come and go, and it will mean little compared to the next three and half plus years he has left in office.  Let’s focus on the big picture and not lose sight of what really counts as the days, months, and years add up.  There’s a lot more to the presidency than the mere first 100 Days that the Media seems to be so focused on.