http://www.newsweek.com/id/168867
Barack The Savior?
The new president may think his only task is to rescue the economy. But like FDR, he may have to save capitalism itself.
Michael Hirsh NEWSWEEK
Few measures of presidential performance have been more overused than the first 100 days. The term was invented, of course, to describe Franklin Roosevelt's remarkable flurry of programs and initiatives after his Inauguration on March 4, 1933. That was a uniquely dire moment in American history, the darkest period of the Great Depression. In Roosevelt's first 100 days, he not only saved the American economy but probably capitalism itself. How? By restoring it to health with a large dose of socialism. It was a supreme irony, considering how FDR was demonized by the right later on, that the president Republicans angrily called "That Man in the White House"proved to be capitalism's greatest savior.
The first "100 days" has rarely been so significant since. But the immediate period after Barack Obama's Inauguration on Jan. 20—which takes place almost exactly 75 years after FDR's—will likely be singularly relevant once again. The global economic crisis remains so pressing, and the solutions offered so far seem to fall so short, that President Obama will have no choice but to "hit the ground running," as he promised in his first news conference last week. In fact, Obama will have to do far more than that. Though he is trying very hard to be a pragmatist and a post-ideological president, it may well fall to Obama not just to rescue the world economy, but to save capitalism, as FDR did.
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http://www.newsweek.com/id/168867