Do we think of the comic-book villain?
That's Lex Luthor as President. It's pretty awful!
Beyond the comic-book realm, where villains are villains and heroes are heroes, we have FDR:
That's Franklin Roosevelt signing the Social Security Act. There were plenty of light-colored suits in that crowd on August 14, 1935. Was there air-conditioning in the White House back then? Yes!
Reconstruction of the West Wing in 1930 after extensive damage by a Christmas Eve fire in 1929 included a central air-conditioning system installed by Carrier Engineering Company. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his staff experienced their first warm season at the White House in 1933, air-conditioning units were added to the private quarters on the second floor.And it should be noted that President William H. Taft (1909-1913) tried to get the White House air conditioned with a system of "electric fans [that] blew over great bins of ice in the attic, cooling the air, which was forced through the air ducts of the heating system." Like many presidential projects, it didn't work.
And back to FDR and his many projects: Did they work? FDR was no comic-book character, and you can decide for yourself whether to regard him as a hero or a villain or something in between. But since the question here is why do we find Obama in a light suit unsettling, I will consult the mysterious recesses of my own mind, and I hear the echoes of my own earliest memories in the sound of my father's voice, stating as fact: Worst President Ever.
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119 comments:
Now is Obama gonna get a green mask and hat.
I mean then he will look just like Stanley Ipkiss in ‘The Mask’ in his zoot suit.
I think the suit looks fine. The color is not too brown/tan. The cut is good. I think we are so used to not seeing a president in a light suit, that it is a bit of a shock.
What does matter at this point? It's just a distraction to avoid realizing the nothingness of his words.
empty suits now come in tan.
Pity you didn't listen to that voice, or the voices of the countless others who warned that Obama would be a bad president.
You voted for him, yes?
Kennedy used effective body language and dressed in a contrasting "power"suit. Nixon, in a drab gray suit, looked uneasy and awkward in his chair.
And partly because of the background and it being televised in B&W.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0xg2cS8OJE0/UEUZP0m-spI/AAAAAAAAAFw/6E1njIVR5pc/s320/JFK-Nixon+Debate+sitting.jpeg
Perhaps the light suit on Obama is unsettling because we most often see Southern men wearing summer-hued suits. When I lived in Columbia, South Carolina, I regularly saw politicians and other professionals in seersucker and linen suits.
Is it rattling to see Obama in attire now usually associated with the South? Or does his appearance in the opposite of a "power suit" affirm the viewer's perception of his weaknesses?
Regardless of the color, the suit is as empty as the man.
Tom Wolfe
?!!!!!!
He looks like a lite weight in tan. That is too truth much to deal with. He needs to put back on his executive decision maker clothes.
I wear the occasional light colored suit to work, but I work in Miami, so I deem it acceptable.
Damn what anyone else thinks.
And the color of our President's suits are the last thing for which he should face criticism, particularly when there's such a rich vein to be mined elsewhere.
This entire suit issue is nothing more than a "look squirrel" thing. Ginned up to distract everyone from the things that they should be paying attention to.
Like many presidential projects, it didn't work.
Hitler put more Americans back to work than FDR ever did.
I wonder if Prof. Althouse's parents took her to the NYC Museum of Natural History and pointed out the statue of "the good Roosevelt," as mine did.
I don't get the suit flap either.
The bastard is a strutting little fuckup. His fashion choices have nothing to do with that.
I hear the echoes of my own earliest memories in the sound of my father's voice, stating as fact: Worst President Ever.
My Grandmother was a believer in the "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" school, so she would have said;
"Teddy, the good Roosevelt"
I'm surprised The White House Historical Association doesn't discuss FDR's audio recording apparatus.
The suit is fine, but it is odd that in an oddly cool Washington August with highs in the mid 70s that the President is first seen in a tan suit a few days before Labor Day.
What is really important is that, whether President Obama wears a dark suit or a tan suit, he has no strategy.
Just wait until he shows up in a shorts suit.
Remember, the policies of FDR were horrible for the economy. Ditto the policies of Nixon. And now Obama.
Anybody else understand the pattern? Anybody else notice consolidation of power to the federal government leads to ruin?
Who cares about the suit(s)?
Twitter isn't my cup of tea. Signal to noise ratio approaches zero. That the News Organism is twitching over the suit is a sign that it may finally realize it has a Carter Situation to work with now.
About time.
I'm firmly in the school that believes that FDR did far more harm than good with his policies. When it comes to government, generally "doing more" is ultimately more damaging than doing less.
My own take is that liberals are criticizing the choice of suit so as to distract from the awesome ineptitude of the conference itself. He really has "no strategy" for dealing with ISIS? Or does he mean that all the possible strategies right now are repugnant to him now that he's turned the white house into an ivory tower? Or does he mean that he has a strategy but even Democrats would be howling for his resignation if they knew what it was?
Or perhaps he's just not up to the demands of the job.
But at any rate we now have people focused on the color of the suit, not the content(lessness) of the presentation.
"Worst President Ever."
The President has a ways to sink before he rivals the feckless, hapless James Buchanan. Then again, Buchanan never tried to exacerbate polarization as a tactic for short-term political advantage.
FDR accomplished many great things for ordinary people. No wonder Republicans hate him.
Just remember this. That man is the absolutely best that the Democrats have. He is the leader of the their party, the man they chose to be their standard-bearer.
If he could actually govern, he could wear a tutu for all I care.
At least along the Eastern Seaboard, is there not some rules as to what ladies may wear before and after Labor Day?
I think he looks good in the suit. It appears to me he did not dress for the speech. He dressed for a prior or succeeding event and it was not important to him to modify his attire.
Why can't these young 'uns see their great grandpas had it all figured out, eh garage?
Perhaps this is what was meant by hope and change.
Now he has a lot of people hoping he changes.
"FDR accomplished many great things for ordinary people. No wonder Republicans hate him."
His greatest accomplishment, aside from winning the war which Marshall and Nimitz did, was refusing to allow public employee unions.
Three cheers for FDR !
@garage, that's a lie and you're a liar. There are plenty of economic studies that demonstrate that FDR's policies deepened and prolonged the Depression. Who did this hurt if not "ordinary people"?
Of course, being a Dumbocrat you don't believe in economics.
The audacity of taupe
The top picture is featured in the weekly caption contest over at Wizbangblog.
Hating FDR and Truman is old line GOP propaganda jealous that FDR won the hearts and minds of most Americans and then Commanded an immense undertaking we call WWII, leaving behind Truman to set up our eventual victory in the anti-communist war. That creates an eternal right to be honored by Americans.
Study the the era's history available today. If you still feel knee jerk need to express jealous hatred of FDR, then you are really weird.
Of ALL the things to criticize him for, please tell me all these people aren't focusing on his SUIT??? Unbelievable.
In any case, I despise the man, but thought the suit looked good on him.
I don't know why there is such a big deal about it but he doesn't look presidential in the suit to me. I don't know why I think that, though.
However, I am certain of this - Somewhere there is already a blog post or article postulating that the uproar over the "tan suit" is really thinly diguised racism. That it is the "tan skin" that is really being mocked.
Actually, I am not sure how much of a Democrat Obama is.
That he makes use of the Democrat Party, and they of him, does not necessarily mean they are of one and the same mind.
And this fall, it is an off-year election that is mostly about the Party, so perhaps a lot of his followers may not be all that motivated to vote?
garage mahal said...
FDR accomplished many great things for ordinary people. No wonder Republicans hate him.
8/29/14, 2:42 PM
Hate is probably too strong of a word. "Saddened by" or "disappointed in" would likely be closer to the truth. His policies though popular with many at the time lengthened the depression and enacted Social Security, that Ponzi scheme that your children will have to pay off but not gain any benefit from.
FDR is relevant today in exactly the same way as the CRT. Good to understand how they worked but not relevant to modern applications.
I think tha Ms. Althouse may have been hearkening back to her childhood days when her father intoned (speaking of FDR) "worst president ever".
I don't happen to agree with her Daddy. And even if did, there were still Messrs. Carter and Obama to come, and those two will carry the palm for the award of "worst president ever".
But I can tell you that Mr. Obama is showing the seeds of becoming the "worst ex president ever" He's still young and in fairly good health. I'm a few years older and the prospect of having to hear that jackass bray unto my dying day is a daunting one.
Jimmy Carter was, and is, bad enough. But there's a good chance I'll outlive him and have a few years in peace. Not so with Obama.
There is the cancer that killed him right on his eyebrow.
He did look good in that suit though.
traditionalguy:
Please explain how the threat to pack the Court was a net positive. Please explain how price controls were a net positive. Please explain how centralization of power was a net positive.
Please don't confuse acknowledgement of specific policy failures of FDR for a misunderstanding of his great (and terrible) political talent. I grant the political talent but FDR's legacy is a net negative.
That FDR did not respond to German and Japanese aggression is not denied. That FDR did not act with all haste to stop the Jewish Holocaust is defensible, perhaps, militarily but is a stain on his character to my mind. That FDR mistook Joe Stalin is not denied. That FDR admired fascist is not denied.
Please, explain all those positives you allege. I will stipulate political acumen.
President Obama on ISIS: "Fetch Me My Brown Pants"
.....There was something about the content of his remarks, though, that reminded me of this old World War II joke about the Allies giving the Italians a pounding.
The Germans decide to send one of their generals to meet with the Italian general in Sicily to improve matters. The latter is standing in front of his headquarters, filled with anxiety. The German general arrives dressed in a magnificent red tunic. “What a gorgeous tunic!” the Italian says. The German replies, “See! This is what is wrong with you guys. You see this and think of beauty whereas I wear it to improve troop morale!” He explains that if he ever gets wounded, his troops won’t see him bleeding and will continue fighting. The Italian takes this message to heart and shouts, “Giuseppe! Fetch me my brown pants!”
@Althouse: My grandfather (b. 1903) had the same opinion as your father. To top it off, his middle name was Roosevelt, but he was named after TR.
Sartorial missteps seem to go hand-in-hand with the Oval Office (examples here: http://thedailybanter.com/2014/08/please-feel-free-shut-fck-obamas-clothes/).
I would think Chris Matthews must just swoon over that shot!
I dunno, setting the national (and thereby effectively the world) exchange price for gold based on your personal whim at breakfast is a pretty supervillianous-type activity.
What horrified markets even more was that FDR managed the operation personally, day by day, over a breakfast tray. No one ever knew what the increase would be. One Friday in November 1933, for example, Roosevelt told Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau that he thought the gold price ought to be raised 21 cents. Why that amount, Morgenthau asked. "Because it's three times seven," FDR replied.
Morgenthau later wrote that "if anybody knew how we set the gold price, through a combination of lucky numbers, etc., I think they would be frightened."
The suit is a diversion to divert attention from what he is saying.
Just kidding. He looks great in the tan suit. He looks great in a dark suit. He would look good in seersucker.
This is now officially ridiculous.
Nice tan.
The lightweight suit reminds us of the lightweight man who strife up to the camera to tell us he had no strategy for the disaster that is ISID and then scurried away to a busy weekend of fundraisers and antisemitic weddings.
rwnutjob said...
The audacity of taupe
The winner.
Brit Hume routinely wears a tan suit in the summer, often with a deep blue shirt a handsome tie.
Looks good.
So..it's no biggie that Dear Leader wears one.
Study the the era's history available today. If you still feel knee jerk need to express jealous hatred of FDR, then you are really weird.
It's all about undoing the New Deal. The rich have always hated it, still hate it, and there are plenty of rubes who will do their bidding for them.
ThreeHeaded Throop said...
"The bastard is a strutting little fuckup. His fashion choices have nothing to do with that."
Actually it has everything to do with it Throop. Preening and acting cool has always been put-put Obama's major strength. In every other category he's impotent.
So his new suit about like Nero's new toga while Rome burned.
I think it was a bunch of chatter drummed up by the Democratic twitter corp to keep the subject of a strategy from being the twitter meme. I don't care what the man wears, I just care what he does to our country.
How many people remember the flap(s) when Ronald Reagan wore a brown suit? (You can Google it, but history started when the internet started, so it's best to rely on the memories of old people.) About the same magnitude of chatter if I recall correctly. Would have been worse if Reagan said he "didn't have a strategy" when he first wore one.
The crease in the pants is more noticeable in a tan suit. It was a love letter to David Brooks.
It's all about undoing the New Deal. The rich have always hated it, still hate it, and there are plenty of rubes who will do their bidding for them.
Only a stupid person believes that.
The world thanks you for voting for him.
The light suit is jarring b/c he's always in a dark suit. It looks a little casual, but it is late August.
As for "worst president ever," it's not even close; many others including Bush 43 are further down (up?) the list for that title; (Nixon and Hoover from the 20th century.)
I did like the tan suit and it was empty .
traditionalguy said...
Study the the era's history available today. If you still feel knee jerk need to express jealous hatred of FDR, then you are really weird.
Written history is different than having lived through something. I think you dishonor the memory of Althouse's father (and my grandfather) for lumping them together and calling them knee-jerks.
I defer to the sixth commandment. You?
I only wish we could undo the new deal...
garage fumed: It's all about undoing the New Deal. The rich have always hated it, still hate it, and there are plenty of rubes who will do their bidding for them.
My grandparents were never rich. They were Wisconsin farmers.
If your only problem with a president is that his suits offend you, you've got the greatest president of your lifetime.
Mind you, President Obama's suits don't offend me at all. Other things do, but not his suits, and certainly not this suit. If he showed up for a press conference in a bathing suit, I'd still be so focused on all the rest so as not to get worried about it.
@garage:
While early relief efforts succeeded in helping many urban workers, New Deal programs for farmers were largely ineffective. The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) tried to raise prices by asking farmers to destroy crops, thereby reducing supply while demand remained stable. It identified nine basic crops and paid farmers to decrease their acreage of them. While this program helped some large farms, small farmers or those who grew crops outside the chosen nine tended to see little benefit. In the spring of 1933, dairymen in the Fox River Valley went on strike, withholding milk, closing down cheese and butter factories, and barricading roads in hopes of raising prices. Their milk strike was too localized to influence dairy prices nationally, though, and by the time the AAA went into effect in June of 1933, it had essentially ended. The AAA limitations on milk production provided a slight improvement in dairy prices but it was far from a permanent solution for Wisconsin's struggling dairy farmers. Low market prices and drought kept the decade of the 1930s a desperate time for most Wisconsin farm families. link
All presidents make mistakes. A lot of them have been big mistakes. But I can't think of a president in the last century who deliberately did anything as evil as rounding up American citizens, putting them in concentration camps and confiscating their homes. Anyone got something to rival that?
As for the suit, I don't know nuttin' about fashion. I have a cheap but semi-flashy pinstriped taupe suit I wear only occasionally. Am I supposed to get rid of it?
Like FDR, Obama was handed a smoldering wreck left from Republican president. But Obama is no FDR sadly.
Also: Don't feminists constantly tell us that only women are ever scrutinized for their clothes, and this is proof of the heavy hand of patriarchy and how men have it so damned easy in every way? So how is this kerfuffle even theoretically possible?
That's it. Worst President Ever? Laughable.
Althouse and this blog are a joke--merely pandering to right wing nuts to get clicks and amazon money. Never visiting again.
The thing I noticed when I saw him on TV wearing that suit, was that he appeared to be wearing very thick, caked-on makeup in a weird color. I suppose the tan is just not on his color wheel, but I thought he looked ill. Scary ill.
3 posts today on Obama's tan suit. The blogress needs to ask herself the question "What was so unsettling about it?"
Your father thought FDR was the worst President ever?
Smart man! He's still right, a half-century later.
chickelit...The successful men with property that could buy up property at depression prices, and the successful rising carer men, all hated FDR for giving away benefits to the unemployed poor as if they were entitled to money to survive on. But FDR was actually stopping the communists and populists from taking over by giving masses of people who had lost everything hope.
The same thing saved the devastated Europe from Stalin. We called it the Marshall plan after General Marshall who had become Truman's Secretary of State. Nobody blinked at a trillion dollars to save refugee Europeans.
But between 1933 and 1940 we had needed a Marshall plan here. It saved many good people.
My father was an FDR hater. But honoring parents is financial aid and courtesy to them in old age. It is not becoming like them, which does not impress them anyway.
I suggested above that some of Mr. Obama's adherents may not show up to vote in November for lack of enthusiasm for the Democrats.
It is also possible that a number of Democrats may not show up for lack of enthusiasm for Mr. Obama.
But then Karl Rove and friends are also working very hard to reduce Republican turnout.
So this could be an interesting election with the outcome depending on which party has the fewest of its voters show up to vote.
"Like FDR, Obama was handed a smoldering wreck left from Republican president. But Obama is no FDR sadly"
Whereas, Harding and Coolidge were handed a smocking wretch by Wilson and fixed it in 18 months.The 1920s were a time of growth and prosperity similar to the 1990s. FDR leftist historians have concealed the story but it is finally leaking out.
The suit looks fine, as a suit.
I wonder if people are mentally equating "tan suit" with "dressed for another activity."
The meme that Obama is checked out and not really putting in 100% is starting to gain some traction. It would be awfully nice to know that the US has figured out a plan for how to respond to ISIS or the invasion of the Ukraine, for example.
I don't know if I would call T Roosevelt the "good" roosevelt. Certainly the "better" Roosevelt but good? With all the progressive stuff he implemented? Perhaps not.
John Henry
"But FDR was actually stopping the communists and populists from taking over by giving masses of people who had lost everything hope."
There was never any chance of the "Communists" or the "Populists" (who had nothing in common by the way) of taking over. 45% of country voted for Hoover in 1932 at the depth of he Depression.
To find out how FDR prolonged the depression, read the Forgotten Man by Amity Schlaes.
Heres are some of FDR's blessings on the US:
Fascism until Hitler gave it a bad name.
VP Wallace, in the pay of Stalin's Russia.
Devaluation of the dollar from $20 to $35 per ounce of gold.
Lying us into a war with Germany by (while the US was supposedly neutral) attacking German naval ships, invading Iceland freeing 100,000 british soldiers to fight Germany, financing Britain and so on. Read Germany's declaration of war for the particulars.
Making ownership of gold illegal.
Nullifying contracts.
Unconstitutional controls on commerce
Price controls
And much, much more.
Carter, Obama and others are pretty bad but their incompetence prevents them from doing as much harm as they might like.
The really bad presidents are those like FDR (and LBJ) who have terrible ideas and the competence to get them implemented.
John Henry
I think that he actually cuts a fine figure in that suit. What bothers me is that people chose to go after him for Style, as opposed to Content.
The President of the United States in a light-colored suit.
Let's ask David Brooks what he thinks. Are you impressed with the pants now, David?
“My overall view,” Brooks told me, “is ninety-five percent of the decisions they make are good and intelligent."
I don't think the suit looks bad. If he was wearing it to announce his basketball picks, I would be fine with that.
We all wish it were not true but clothes do make the man. They make how people perceive the man. If he is going to talk about serious stuff, he should be wearing a serious suit.
He should not look like, as Esquire put it, the president of Sears, Roebuck.
It is not only others perceptions of him. I think how one dresses affects one's perception of oneself. The Marines say that "If you don't look like a Marine you won't feel like a Marine. If you don't feel like a Marine, you would be a Marine.'
Or as Prop Joe said: "Look the part, be the part".
I do not think anyone can be president without looking presidential and that includes somewhat formal.
Especially in a case like this where he is making a formal announcement that he has no strategy.
John Henry
Mark Steyn : [F]orgive me looking it from the foreigner’s point of view, but one of the odd things about the system here is that the Democrats tend to wind up nominating sociopaths, and the Republicans tend to nominate rich guys.
But honoring parents is financial aid and courtesy to them in old age. It is not becoming like them, which does not impress them anyway.
I wasn't suggesting becoming them; I was objecting to your projecting the present backwards in time and calling them "knee-jerks." You seem to allow for no understanding of what might have made them feel the way they did except to suggest that they were wrong. I reject that, sir. Most adamantly.
Re the tan suit: Suppose that Obama donned a matching service cap, even as a joke. People would start shitting bricks.
I don't care for the president but I like the tan suit. Looks great.
Fluff and nonsense. Who cares?
Growth is 2-3%' spending on those New Deal and New-New Deal programs puts us at 5%. As vodkapundit says, we're eating our seed corn.
Which is why they've always kicked the can. OPM.
And GM, remember when you trumpeted Gov. moonbeam's Cali budget surplus? Ahh, how things change in a year. Blue states goin' down hard and probably first.
We're supposed to like FDR, despite putting American citizens in concentration camps, firebombing civilians and giving half of Europe to Stalin? No thanks. Let him rot in hell.
Your Father was right. His ridiculous economic collectivism (Communism light), greatly aided the to the economic woes that caused World War II. No FDR, good chance, no World War II.
traditionalguy:
The poor FDR displaced via the TVA certainly hated FDR too. And there was a lot to hate. For example, FDR centralized authority in the federal government and loved communist "Uncle" Joe Stalin. Far from fighting communists, FDR talked highly of the murderous Stalin. And the economy suffered through price controls that caused widespread deprivation.
Centralized government has always done so. Find an example contrary and I will find you ten to prove the point.
Heyooyah:
What will your new nickname be when you next post a comment?
Military engineers rigged the very first air conditioning in the White House during the hot summer of 1881 as President Garfield lay gravely ill after being shot. Explorer John Wesley Powell assisted in the design, which involved fans blowing air over ice and wet towels. After several weeks, the president's doctors* decided that ocean air would be more helpful, and moved him to a seaside cottage in New Jersey. To get him there without the need for a carriage transfer, several hundred townspeople built a 3,000-foot rail spur in 24 hours. Garfield died soon afterwards.
* = Garfield might well have survived, were it not for the doctors probing his wound with their unclean fingers.
Peter
He looks like he is still vacationing.
I thought it was a nice suit, well tailored. Quite a departure from what he usually wears.
I try to pay attention to what people say, not what they wear.
This blog needs an enema! Good god...
Never mind the continual stream of embarassing ignorance that rolls out of his mouth in front of the entire world, let's be the new David Brooks of the blogosphere worrying our pretty little heads about what Obama is wearing! Did you by chance note the crease in his pants there, dear Professor? Maybe a thrill going up your leg?
The leader of the free world publicly admits he doesn't have a clue how to deal with the growing terrorism threat posed by the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) in Syria, and Althouse types up not one, not two, but THREE separate blog posts concerned about how the public is reacting to her man Obama's unconventional summer sartorial splendor. This blog is jumping the shark HARD...
Well, at least he wore a suit. It won't be too long before Obama starts greeting foreign dignitaries in his Nike golf shirt. Come January it will 24 months of golf.
A white (linen?) suit is a symbol of the South.
Sorry, I did not recall that FDR started the Great Depression that was suddenly at its depths in March 1933 because he was inaugurated. I guess you just have to believe he was the cause.
FDR tried many dumb economic ideas to give the stunned population hope. But something was needed, and he had guts to attempt kick starting a recovery. The invisible hand of the free market was deep in hiding and people were desperate for jobs. So FDR took risks that gave some hope.
What FDR did well includes Rural Electrification and projects like TVA Dam system, the Grand Coulee damn, and finishing the Boulder dam. ( later Renamed Hoover dam for unknown reasons). Those were immediate job creators that did more good than doing nothing while waiting five more years for a MIA hoard of capital owner risk takers to appear without incentive of profit.
By contrast FDR did not refuse oil pipeline construction jobs and also shut down cheap electricity from coal plant generation with NO alternatives available. A President and Democrat Party that does that are deliberately attacking the USA and trying to destroy what FDR and Truman risked so much to save from 1933 to 1953.
And none of it, tradguy, helped the economy worth a damn until Lend Lease.
You understand that using taxpayer money to employ people so that you can tax them is a zero sum game, right?
The depression lasted as long as it did because wealth creation was penalized.
Rusty:
Government is not a zero-sum game. It's worse than that. Government starts with the supposition that it can take a dollar, subtract overhead expenses, return the leftovers to somebody that will use the leftovers better than the original person would've spent the full dollar AND THAT will work magic.
Believing so much foolishness requires an advanced degree.
traditionalguy:
The policies followed by Hoover were interventionist -- same as those of FDR. If you believe the policies of Hoover were bad, then you must believe the policies of FDR were bad or prove yourself a hypocrite. Choose one.
Your claim that the REA (still in existence) and TVA (still in existence) were net positives is the triumph of bad propaganda and willful ignorance over fact.
Your claim that FDR fought communism is the same.
Your claim that "doing something" is better than doing nothing is unsupported by economic evidence. Your belief is political. And politics ain't worth shit when it comes to feeding, clothing and employing a country.
So the Great Depression stopped by magic the day Herbert Hoover was re-elected...or was that Tom Dewey? GOP historians are unsure about that.
If you read material from the mid 1930s, the false hope ideas of Karl Marx were getting very popular, and Huey Long was using a redistributionist populism in the south. The need to fill the vacuum of hopelessness of 50% unemployment for 5 years had reached a real crisis and many were joining the Communist Party.
FDR was an antidote that gave Americans hope with silly NRA ideas and a reassuring voice on the Radio that someone cared.That message saved the USA at an emotional level that won FDR loyalty from hurting people. I.e.,nearly everybody. Without him doing that the 1936 election would have been plain Socialist.
FDR managed a way through those dark days and later directed the right men in smashing the Nazi Empire and the Jap Empire while building the Bomb that changed the world. And he ditched VP Henry Wallace for VP Truman knowing he would die any day.
Truman nuked the GD Japs, created and funded the Marshall Plan, the Berlin Airlift, Korean War and enforced containment of Communism as our policy,while he single handedly got Israel off the ground, integrated the US Military and beat the strange little man named Thomas Dewey that the GOP had anointed. Sorry,the Scots-Irish Harry Truman gets me started.
Finding theoretical fault with FDR now is sour grapes from losers. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
Birkel said...
Rusty:
Government is not a zero-sum game. It's worse than that.
Birk. I try to keep it simple for the simple minded lefties here who have difficulty with basic economic concepts.
"garage mahal said...
FDR accomplished many great things for ordinary people. No wonder Republicans hate him. "
FDR kept food prices high, which, of course, helped poor hungry folks.....
Obama is the smartest liberal of all times.... And now the character he most resembles is Zoolander, the brainless male model from a movie. The biggest difference between them is that Zoolander could not turn left, and Obama cannot turn right.
Rusty:
That's fair. :)
traditionalguy:
Your argument via "collective psychology" is noted. As an empiricist, I must demand facts and not the sort of psycho-babble on offer.
Also, nobody has made a negative point about Truman. Stop trying to conflate FDR and Truman. Doing so reveals your attempt to argue in bad faith.
Finally, the Great Depression stopped in 1947. Even with all the WWII spending for military armament, the country did not recover until after the war. That you would give a dead president credit for ending the Great Depression is sad. Stop it. Go ply your wares on the less aware.
@ Birkel...I know many people who lived through the Great Depression. It was more than economic statistics.
It was filled with desperate good people who saw their parents go into shock and give up. That included the capitalist investors that had debt.
The young who came back as veterans came back as changed men that were willing take risks again. That was what ended the Depression. Yes that was psychology as real as it gets.
No President ended it. Frankly, You are the first FDR critic I ever talked with who was not also a Truman despiser. So that must have been Psychobabble too.
traditionalguy:
If you are attempting to prove beyond doubt that you are arguing in bad faith, you may stop; mission accomplished.
Traditional guy,
It is actually quite common for pro-FDR guys to despise Truman.
The other side is well represented by Paul Johnson, author of 'history of American people' and 'modern times', pretty right-wing and accurate books. Definitely anti-FDR and pro-Truman.
@ Birkel...You have a good day too.
Obama as Blofeld?
He needs a white cat and monocle.
Traditional Guy said:
Sorry, I did not recall that FDR started the Great Depression that was suddenly at its depths in March 1933
Well, no.
the great depression was at its deepest depths in 1937-38. You could look it up.
damn, and finishing the Boulder dam. ( later Renamed Hoover dam for unknown reasons)
Well, other than the fact that the Senate voted unanimously to do so and the House voted unanimously to do so.
It had originally been named Hoover Dam, Roosevelt hated Hoover and renamed it Boulder Dam in 1933. The name never really stuck, though.
Secty of Commerce Hoover was instrumental in resolving the political issues between the various states in 1924-26. If you read the story of this, the actual building of the dam was child's play beside the interstate political issues.
Hoover may have had his failings as a president but he was pretty interesting guy. Orphan, HS Dropout, Student #001 at Stanford, highly successful mining engineer, saved 20 million civilians from starvation in WWI, Spent 3 months living on a train during the Mississippi floods in 1923(yr?)
Vernon Kellogg's bio is pretty good but was written in 1920. Hoover's own autobiography (3 volumes, download free PDF from Hoover Institute library)is even better.
He made Bill Gates and Sam Walton look like pikers.
John Henry
The depression was pretty well ending in 1933 as FDR took office. One of the first things he did was to devalue the dollar by 70% or so (from $20 to $35) and invalidate all contracts that required payment in gold. (Common at the time)
This really screwed the pooch by reducing the value that buyers had to make to vendors.
This, perhaps more than anything else, plunged us into a deeper depression than had ever existed before.
Yeah, tell me again how FDR got us out of the depression.
Told you he was Professor Harold Hill from The Music Man
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