Obama's First 100: Channel FDR, Avoid Clinton Foibles

Up big in the polls with Election Day fast approaching, “a lot of people around Barack are reading books about FDR’s first 100 days,” one Obama insider tells New York. Aides have gone beyond simply planning his White House transition; they’ve drafted a book-length administration blueprint, complete with day-one, day-100, and year-one goals, and agency-by-agency agendas—with avoiding Bill Clinton-type drama a key goal.

Much will depend on how many seats Democrats win in Congress. Many are hoping Obama leads a Reagan-like realignment, a “new New Deal.” “My view is that we gotta be the party of reform,” says Rep. Rahm Emmanuel, who shares a strategist with Obama, who outlines four reforms: financial-regulatory, energy, health-care and taxes, to be tackled in that order.
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