Anthony Badger reminds us that the First Hundred Days of the New Deal were imperfect. According to Badger, FDR did not do enough to end the Great Depression, many of his programs did not work, he was not fully prepared to handle the challenges that he faced, and Congress was actually responsible for many of the ideas and programs that we still associate with his White House. In Badger's portrait of the First Hundred Days, we don't see an infallible president who hit every challenge out of the ball park, but instead a very human president who struggled to confront a severe crisis and did not always know the best path to take.

But in many ways this portrait makes the New Deal that much more impressive and a better model for President Obama. The First Hundred days really were a model of policy experimentation--the kind of risk-taking that seems foreign in today's carefully choreographed political system--as a president took chances in floating policies and trying policies that were proposed to him, even when he had significant doubts about the outcome. The programs didn't do everything that FDR had hoped, but these programs started a process of rebuilding the infrastructure of the American economy: agricultural programs provided some stability to farmers; electrification program brought light and energy to rural communities; and the deposits in American banks were protected.

The greatness of the First Hundred Days, according to Badger, did not come from success but from a willingness to try. This is what distinguished FDR from so many of the presidents who came before him, and ever since. I can't think of a better lesson of leadership for President Barack Obama as he starts his term.