Barack Obama and the Lessons of Franklin Roosevelt
Reader Comments
Obama vs Roosevelt
Four fireside chats by President Roosevelt were national talks as long as you had a radio. President Obama has given three, maybe four, talks to the nation and it is September. I don't think he is over-exposing himself. He is just covered by the media more than Roosevelt was and he is always warmly greeted wherever he goes. He has talks with small groups as he goes around the country. Roosevelt didn't travel the way modern Presidents have since he waa President, and those who didn't want, or couldn't do a good job (Bush) would rather not speak in public. How Bush was ever elected President in the first place....the son of a former President and a first term governor of Texas, where he promised to remain in office while he was preparing to run for the presidency? We don't always elect the right man. This time we did. Republicans so easily forget the 8 years he was in office and what a mess he left behind.
Obama
you should leagalize bud :]
He should be like Ike or Reagan
President Eisenhower did a great job of setting priorities and balancing interests of both Republicans and Democrats. He believed that government can help promote economic growth and social conditions, but that it must try hard to attain fiscal balance and be sure that it is investing in the long term rather than squandering resources on foolish programs or crowding the private economy. He also knew that a military expansion was necessary, but keeping the military-industrial complex on tight oversight and positive diplomacy was also for our country's good too.
President Reagan brought ideas and a genuine love for America and the Constitution to the White House. His great rhetoric did wonders in uniting America and making Americans proud of our historical and Constitutional heritage as well as America's place in the world. Reagan also expanded the military and had some instances in which he was willing to use force, but unlike some other certain Presidents, he used it wisely and had a foreign policy team dominated by Realists who did a lot of diplomacy in front and in the background. On economic policy President Reagan reversed some of the excesses that were stifling the economy brought on by low productivity growth and high inflation in the 1970s by bringing down tax rates and cutting less essential regulations. Of coarse, there have been excesses to that.
I think President Obama owes the American people fiscal discipline, foreign policy realism -- a better and stronger military coupled with excellent diplomacy and attention to non-military crises as well [aids, climate, etc.], Constitutional balance, a respect for our great country's heritage, and a good example of civility for all Americans to emulate. We don't need the President to expand the federal government, boldly experiment with the economy, or cut the Constitution down even more. We need results from a competent government based on balance and good will.
Obama channels former great presidents
Obama is channeling Lincoln, FDR and JFK, picking out the best features, policies and decisions of each of these great former presidents to influence his own decisions and policies during these troubling times. Sounds pretty smart to me seeing as Lincoln, FDR and JFK were all considered great presidents. Better than emulating Buchanan, Hoover and Nixon. Just make sure not to take too much advice from soon to be former President W.
Interesting
The first thing that FDR did was to move us to a socialistic type of government with the confiscation of gold. Who would of thought that it would be illegal to own your own real money (gold) in the land of the free? I suppose any comment on the turnaround from the depression would have to be that we bombed those Axis industrialized nations into oblivion that would have been our competition in the world in a gigantic war. Having thus done that we proceeded to be most prosperous nation on the face of the earth for around 30 years. After that we decoupled our money from any real standard. If what we have to look forward to is history repeating itself, look out! Here comes WW-III.... Oh let's not forget BHO can communicate real nice. That gives me a warm fuzzy.
On a side note to Mr Schlesinger, I think it is a shame that you get paid to give your opinion because of your last name and not talent.
