April 28, 2009 Tomorrow marks 100 days in office for President Barack Obama. And the media is all atwitter.
While the administration feigns disinterest—for the most part—the pundits are busy weighing in. How's he doing, compared to previous presidents? Perhaps you saw the series of op-eds in The New York Times this past Sunday comparing Obama's first 100 days with his predecessors', including FDR's frenzied efforts to pull the country out of the Great Depression (http://bit.ly/FXJlZ).
In the end, the first 100 days of a presidency is arbitrary and hardly enough time to get much done.
What strikes me about Obama's first 100 days is his reservoir of goodwill. It's still plenty full. Sixty-eight percent of the population approves of the job he's doing, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll. Why? For one, he didn't create the mess he's trying to pull us out of. People get that.
But, perhaps more importantly, candidate Obama and his campaign staff did such a good job connecting with people and their passions throughout the long campaign. Unlike any candidate before, he embraced the plethora of new tools to touch people and their lives. Think Twitter, Facebook, YouTube.
There are lots of lessons about how to tap into people's passions and networks from the Obama campaign. And I'll be highlighting some of them in the coming weeks and months. Stay tuned.
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