ANELIA DIMITROVA, CEDAR FALLS, IOWA: My name is Anelia Dimitrova from Cedar Falls, Iowa. And I want to ask CNN, why are the first 100 days critical to a new administration in the United States? And where does the tradition originate?</s>FRANK SESNO, 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 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 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 United States?