Anthony Badger has provided a wonderfully detailed and balanced account of FDR's First Hundred Days in his post. I do not intend in this more modest post to match his in-depth analysis or to debate the merits of particular policies enacted during this period. Rather my goal is to outline lessons that Obama could learn from FDR's success in enacting numerous major policy initiatives in his still unmatched First Hundred Days.

Like Franklin D. Roosevelt, Obama is a progressive Democrat elected at the end of a conservative era in American politics. Like FDR, Obama has an opportunity to become a transformational president. To achieve this goal, Obama would be well advised to follow Roosevelt's precedents for governing. Roosevelt not only won an unprecedented four presidential elections, but he also transformed the Democrats from a weak minority to American's dominant party.

Roosevelt succeeded as a policy maker and politician by following four simple rules that ought to guide the incoming Obama administration as well.

Strike Early

Newly elected presidents are strongest in the early days of their administration before buyer's remorse sets in for the public and opposition in Congress has a chance to organize and gain strength.

Obama will not likely match that record legislative harvest FDR'sa First Hundred Days -- no president has done so. However, he should also work with the Democratic congressional leadership to enact as quickly as possible his plans for economy recovery and reform.

As Professor Badger notes, Roosevelt also used his executive powers during the first 100 days. For example, FDR issued executive orders that took the nation off the gold standard and declared a national bank holiday that closed insolvent institutions for four days. Likewise, Obama could reverse Bush-era executive orders that restricted access to presidential records, subjected anti-war dissidents to possible confiscation of their property, and weakened anti-pollution laws, restricted access to family planning, and limited stem cell research.

Bring the people with you

Congress is like Wall Street. It operates on fear and greed. Members of Congress will be fearful of challenging a president who has public backing and greedy to enact popular laws that they can bring to their constituents in the midterm elections of 2010.

FDR pioneered the direct communication between a president and the public through his fireside chats on the radio. He also worked through the conventional media by holding twice weekly press conferences.

Obama should use his oratorical skills and mastery of new media to sell his program directly to the American people. Like FDR he should use his inaugural address to inspire the American people, display optimism, and demonstrate that he will decisively deal with current crises. He should also follow the other FDR precedent and make himself far more accessible to the press than President George W. Bush.

Think big and broadly

The watchword for FDR's policy-making was "bold, persistent experimentation." FDR had no fear of implementing big ideas that included ensuring bank deposits, regulating the stock market, guaranteeing collective bargaining rights, or providing old age insurance and minimum wages.

He was also willing to explore different approaches to recovery from the Great Depression and to reform of the economic system.

FDR kept what worked, such as banking regulations and Social Security, and discarded what did not, such as attempts to form industry-wide codes on wages and production under the National Recovery Act.

Today, economists are offering solutions to our economic woes that range from nationalizing the banks to letting the markets work their magic free of government interference. Obama should recognize that there is no consensus answer to recovery and reform, and experiment with a mix of market and regulatory approaches.

Don't govern from the middle

Great presidents, like FDR and Ronald Reagan, don't move to the middle; they move the middle to them by changing the conversation about government and implementing programs that work. This objective can be achieved, moreover, without reigniting the poisonous partisanship of the George W. Bush years.

No political leader in the history of the government has gained major political success or produced fundamental changes in national policy by attempting to move to the middle. Rather, the so-called "center" of American politics is the graveyard of mediocre, one-term presidents like William Howard Taft, Herbert Hoover, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter. The centrist presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Bill Clinton won two terms in office, but they both lost control of Congress in their first term and failed to pass on the presidency to a candidate of their party.

By following the example of FDR, Obama can prove that it is possible to learn from history and not merely be condemned to repeat the mistakes of the past.