First 100 days of previous presidents

Franklin D. Roosevelt

In 1933, Roosevelt came to office in the Great Depression, with one in four workers idle, more than 80 percent of the stock market's value gone, farmers destitute, urban dwellers in bread lines, and banks failing at an alarming rate, eliminating the savings of millions. Fellow Democrats controlled the House and Senate.

He immediately declared a temporary closure of banks to stop panic withdrawals, called a special session of Congress and won passage of a law to stabilize the banking system.

He came forward with a flurry of legislation that set the pillars of the New Deal in place within his first 100 days, "the most concentrated period of U.S. reform in U.S. history," said Alan Brinkley and Davis Dyer in "The Reader's Companion to the American Presidency." FDR threw public funds behind industrial recovery, agricultural renewal and public works.

His burst of productivity gave rise to American history's 100-day benchmark for new presidents.

John F. Kennedy

A master orator, JFK was not a high achiever in his first 100 days in 1961, a period marked by the bungled Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba by U.S.-trained Cuban exiles and the Soviet Union's launch of the first human into outer space on April 12.

Kennedy proved more sure-footed in Cold War brinkmanship that came later, declaring a quarantine on Soviet shipping to Cuba to prevent the establishment of missile bases that were able to strike the U.S. The Soviets relented in 1962, defusing a crisis that had brought the nuclear powers perilously close to war.

Kennedy's first official act, on Jan. 21, was to issue an executive order directing a doubling of the amount of surplus food that was being distributed to needy families.

He quickly acted on domestic issues, establishing the Peace Corps, authorizing five food stamp distribution projects and sending 297 mayors telegrams asking them to increase their urban renewal efforts.

Ronald Reagan

Reagan took office in 1981 after crushing President Jimmy Carter in the election. Fellow Republicans were in control of the Senate, Democrats controlled the House, and he had big plans brewing to put the government on a conservative path.

He got off to a fast start — but not by achieving a mountain of legislation in the first 100 days. Rather, he used his powers of persuasion with lawmakers and the public to soften the ground for what political scientists called the most consequential tax, spending and government-overhaul Congress had seen in decades.

Reagan used his "bully pulpit" to overcome Democratic opposition.

After more than two months in office, Reagan was shot in an assassination attempt that nearly killed him — a shocker that rallied support behind him even as he was temporarily sidelined by surgery and convalescence — and never completely recovered. Congressional approval of his sweeping plan came later that year.

George W. Bush

The Republican who barely won the office after the closest U.S. presidential election in history dealt with a Republican-controlled House and a Senate that was evenly divided (as if the presidential vote wasn't dramatic enough). Republicans held the tiebreaking vote in the Senate until June, when a GOP lawmaker switched to vote with Democrats.

Bush did not get much more in his 100 days in 2001 than a House vote backing elements of his big tax cuts. A dispute with China intervened over a collision between a U.S. spy plane and a Chinese fighter plane that killed the Chinese pilot and resulted in the detention of the U.S. crew.

At his 100-day mark, political analysts concluded that Bush had yet show that he was the "can-do" leader that he had promised to be during his contentious campaign.

The tax cuts came later. Then the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, which changed everything.

Associated Press