President Obama’s first 100 days have come and gone, and during that time the president has been quite busy: Setting a time line for withdrawal from Iraq and approving a troop increase in Afghanistan, signing orders to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, reversing the ban for federal funding of stem cell research and, of course, passing the $787 billion stimulus bill.

Having all of this on his term transcript so far has to bode well for the young president, doesn’t it?

Well, no. But that has just as much to do with the guideline as it does with Obama.

It’s almost common knowledge that using the first 100 days of a presidency as an indicator of future success came from the first term of FDR, where, in an astonishing flurry of action, around 15 major bills were passed, forming a rough draft of the New Deal that helped bring America out of the Great Depression.

But what most people don’t remember is that there were two New Deals. The first, passed in FDR’s first year, sounds a lot similar to Obama’s stimulus: bringing about reform in banking and work relief programs.

But the second New Deal, which housed programs that were just as important, took more than two years to finally get through. Some of the later programs passed were even ruled unconstitutional, as nearly every bipartisan air evaporated.

Sound familiar?

It may be worthwhile to examine the first 100 days of a presidency; it helps set the tone for the days to come. But it was proven by Clinton that that time period is not an indicator of the entire presidency; his rocky start was followed by a second term. Not to mention that, even if — in some parallel universe— Obama had become universally hated by this time, he would still have another 1,400 days or so to fix that.

In the article written for the Daily on this subject, every person interviewed, regardless of political views, agreed on one thing: the usage of the first 100 days as a guideline is an outdated practice that needs to be replaced. Comparing the first 100 days of Obama to the anomalous first 100 days of Roosevelt only proves to the world that Obama isn’t Roosevelt.

There may be similarities in the situations they face, true. And Obama may even overcome them in a fashion as stunning as Roosevelt’s plan was.

But just because he’s not setting the speed record doesn’t mean he won’t finish the race.