Editor 's note : How would you rate President Obama 's first 100 days ? You 'll get a chance to make your opinion known on at 7 p.m. ET Wednesday on the CNN National Report Card . Franklin D. Roosevelt had an ambitious first 100 days , CNN 's Bill Schneider says . WASHINGTON -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Senior White House adviser David Axelrod has called the 100-day benchmark an `` odd custom , the journalistic equivalent of the Hallmark holiday . '' But where did the notion of a president 's `` First 100 Days '' originate ? With Franklin D. Roosevelt , another president who took office at a time of dire economic crisis . Roosevelt used his first 100 days to launch the New Deal , his plan to jumpstart the economy and put people back to work . Democrats had just won huge majorities in Congress and were ready to do the president 's bidding . But , should Congress fail to act , Roosevelt would ask for `` broad executive power to wage a war against the emergency , as great as the power that would be given to me if we were , in fact , invaded by a foreign foe , '' he warned in his inaugural address . Watch what FDR 's First 100 Days were like '' Congress gave Roosevelt nearly nearly everything he wanted -- 15 major bills in the first 100 days , including the Emergency Banking Relief Act , the Public Works Administration , the Civilian Conservation Corps , the Tennessee Valley Authority , the National Industrial Recovery Act and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation . Congress also approved the Beer-Wine Revenue Act that anticipated the end of Prohibition . A White House adviser remarked that members of Congress had forgotten to be Republicans or Democrats . Comedian Will Rogers joked at the time that , `` Congress does n't pass legislation any more . They just wave at the bills as they go by . '' Nothing since has equaled FDR 's first 100 days . But as Obama nears the symbolic benchmark , he may have had the boldest 100-day agenda since FDR . Still , Congress has passed only a few major bills , including the $ 787 billion economic stimulus package , the public lands preservation bill and an expansion of children 's health insurance . So what has changed ? Presidents can no longer count on the kind of bipartisan cooperation FDR got in 1933 -- even at a time of crisis .