School of Journalism professor Richard Reeves (pictured) wrote an April 25 New York Times op-ed about the first 100 days in presidential office for John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama, noting that modern history shows there is little relation between the small time period and the rest of the term.

Reeves argued that Obama's first 100 days were not nearly as tumultuous as those of Kennedy, who was faced with Russia's man-in-space triumph, a bungled Bay of Pigs invasion and the thought that the U.S.-backed Laos would turn Communist.

"We don’t know what — if any — explosions have taken place in Barack Obama’s Oval Office," he wrote. "We do know, though, that he has not made the kind of mistakes in his first 100 days that Kennedy did. ... Most of all, we know from observing the modern presidency that there may be very little relation between a president’s first 100 days and the next 1,361. The presidency is essentially a reactive job; any president — be it John F. Kennedy or Barack Obama — inevitably becomes a creature of events unforeseen."

Reeves is the author of President Kennedy: Profile of Power, which was chosen by Time magazine as the best non-fiction book of 1993.

New York Times op-ed
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