CNN to treat Obama's 100th day like election night

[April 20, 2009]  NEW YORK (AP) -- CNN is marking President Barack Obama's 100th day in office with prime-time coverage that will recall last year's primary and general election nights, right down to John King's magic wall.

The network says it will compile a national report card of Obama's performance, using opinion polls and a series of viewer surveys.

The big night is April 29, a week from this Wednesday, pre-empting regular programming.

Most of the anchors and commentators who were CNN regulars on political nights last year will appear.

"This is the perfect day to have commentary about how the president is doing and the perfect day to ask the public how they think the president is doing," said Sam Feist, CNN's political director. He's been planning the 100th and 200th day specials since shortly after the election.

The 100-day marker is a journalistic contrivance often used to evaluate new administrations. CNN is giving extra importance to this one because of the two wars and economic meltdown.

ABC News is planning to mark the day with reporting on "Good Morning America," "World News" and "Nightline," a spokeswoman said. Other television networks haven't made their plans clear.

CNN will review actions taken by the Obama administration and give viewers a chance to grade him, the Cabinet and Congress, Feist said.

"It's going to have the energy and excitement of an election night," Feist said.

King, who used a giant touchscreen during the election to keep track of polling data, will use it again to show where money is going from the economic stimulus plan, he said. Bill Schneider will review polling data. Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper and Soledad O'Brien will join King as the network's on-air leaders.

CNN won a Peabody Award for its primary and debate night coverage last year and, given consistently high ratings for these political nights, would love an encore. Prime-time has also been a weakness for the network, as CNN finished third in prime-time viewers behind Fox News Channel and MSNBC for the first time ever during the first quarter of the year.

[Associated Press]

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