JOIE CHEN, CNN ANCHOR: We've been talking a lot here recently about Mr. Bush's first 100 days in office, which led one of our CNN viewers to ask</s>CNN: why?</s>ANELIA DIMITROVA, CEDAR FALLS, IOWA: My name is Anelia Dimitrova from Cedar Falls, Iowa, and I want to ask</s>CNN: why are the first 100 days critical to a new administration in the United States? And where does the tradition originate?</s>FRANK SESSNO, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Anelia, 100 days is an arbitrary number. However, it is rooted in American political tradition. Franklin Delano Roosevelt had a 100-day plan. He, of course, came to office during the Great Depression and needed to convince the American people that there was urgency and a point to his mission, and that he had something to articulate and to get done. Ronald Reagan had a 100-day plan, carefully crafted, that focused on the economy. It's also a way of challenging the Congress and capitalizing on a honeymoon that Lyndon Johnson noted frequently is all too short. In the case of George W. Bush, with a very narrowly divided United States Congress and that disputed election, he has shied away from talking about a 100-day plan. In fact, they at this White House, prefer to focus on a 180 days, because they feel it lowers expectations and it builds in enough time for Congress to get something done. But 100 days, though arbitrary, is a number that the Congress, the public, the press and the presidents themselves often use to measure success and momentum.
Ask CNN: Why Are the First 100 Days Critical to a New Administration in the U.S.?