FDR and BHO

Paul H. Rubin writes on the potential parallels between Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Barack Obama.

In 1932, Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president as the nation was heading into a severe recession. The stock market had crashed in 1929, the world's economy was slowing down, and all economic indicators in the U.S. showed signs of trouble.

The new president's response was to restructure the economy with the New Deal -- an expansion of the role of government once unimaginable in America. We now know that FDR's policies likely prolonged the Great Depression because the economy never fully recovered in the 1930s, and actually got worse in the latter half of the decade. And we know that FDR got away with it (winning election four times) by blaming his predecessor, Herbert Hoover, for crashing the economy in the first place.

Rubin isn't the first to note the parallels in the election scenario. He may be the first to note in the context of the comparison that Obama is already blaming the economic problems on the other party. Read the whole of it.



I've been making a similar case lately over at the Center For Inquiry message board. The response from "Mriana," though anecdotal, may be instructive:

FDR was a good pres. He did not prolong the Depression, but rather instituted programs that helped to get us out of the Depression.

I wonder what programs she had in mind, other than World War II?