White House Insiders Compare Obama to Franklin Roosevelt

Officials say Obama's healthcare reform and stimulus work start to match what FDR did in the 1930s

By Kenneth T. Walsh

December 23, 2009 RSS Feed Print

As they assess President Obama's first year in office, White House insiders are, somewhat surprisingly, again comparing him to Franklin D. Roosevelt in terms of his accomplishments and the depth and breadth of the change he is bringing to Washington. This was a comparison that the insiders used when Obama first took office in January, but it became muted when he ran into strong political head winds over the past several months.

Now, White House officials are again saying that Obama is making major changes just as FDR did in the 1930s. The shift has been triggered by the Senate's movement toward passage of healthcare legislation, scheduled for tomorrow. Obama aides say his first year was filled with strong accomplishments, ranging from winning congressional passage of a $787 billion stimulus bill in February to expansion of healthcare coverage for children and bailing out the financial industry, which Obama strategists say saved the economy from collapse. In some ways, says a senior Obama aide, "what we're doing is the modern equivalent of what FDR did."

Republicans have a completely different take, arguing that Obama is amassing a dangerously vast national debt and injecting the federal government into too many areas of national life.

Tags:
Barack Obama,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt

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Looking down the road to 2012 and beyond,the Republican Party does not have a Man or Woman in their camp that they can confidently present as a Candidate - a winning Candidate for President. The Party is in dire need of a moral re-armorment. And it takes great courage to embark on a program of Moral Re-armorment. Holding back the passage of the Healthcare Bill is a blind fool's strategy that will back-fire on the Party. The Party's image is already tarnished by the fact that they watched the economy go down the tubes over the past two presidential periods and never did they allow their moral courage to come to the surface. They kept protecting the Party,s image and NOT the American people's welfare. They are wasting time playing politics with religion and abortion.(Do they really understand who God is?). Wake up Republicans and smell the coffee.

Conrad Walker of TX 4:48PM February 10, 2010

PRESIDENT OBAMA. DURING YOUR CAMPAIGN YOU VOWED WE WOULD HAVE CHANGE, WE LISTENED TO YOU AND BELIEVED YOU. YOUR LOUD CALL OF "YES WE CAN" GAVE US HOPE. WE FELT YOUR STRENGTH. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, DON'T GIVE IN AND GIVE UP. YOU ARE ON THE RIGHT PATH AND CHANGE CAN COME AND WILL COME IF YOU GO FORWARD WITH ALL YOUR PLANS. I REMEMBER F.D.R.'S FIRESIDE CHATS...I REMEMBER HOW PEOPLE TURNED ON HIM AND SPOKE OF THEIR HATE AND DISILLUSIONS...BUT HE FORGED ON. THEY DIDN'T WANT SOCIAL SECURITY AND THEY PUT W.P.A. DOWN. AGAIN HE FORGED ON. YEARS LATER THEY REALIZED HE DID EVERYTHING HE COULD TO GIVE US A BETTER LIFE AND HIS CHANGES SAVED THIS COUNTRY. WE BELIEVED IN HIM SO MUCH WE VOTED HIM IN FOR 3RD TERM..NOT JUST BECAUSE OF THE WAR BUT BECAUSE WE FELT HIS STRENGTH AND COURAGE AND KNEW HE WOULD ALWAYS BE LOOKING OUT FOR THE GOOD OF ALL MAN KIND. DON'T ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE CAUSOUS AND FEARFUL OF WHAT OTHER POLITICIANS WANT AND WHAT THEY MAY ACCUSE YOU OF. STAND UP TO THEM AND FORGE AHEAD AND MILLIONS OF US ARE WITH YOU ALL THE WAY. PLEASE...YOU ARE OUR LAST HOPE. "YES WE CAN"

)MILDRED AND RICHARD RINKER..(PEARL HARBOR SURVIVOR of CA 3:25PM February 06, 2010

The real problem we are faced with as Americans is not President Barack Obama. It's the republican Democrats dressed up in Democrat costums pretending to be for the people by the people and with the people. President Obama need to rewrite the law for Congress they have too much power and fail to stand up

and represent Americans when they need them most. I'm going to start a partition to strip congress of their power and give their misuse of authority to the President. Why? because we

the people stand beside President Obama and the majority of us believe that President Obama has our best interest at hand. Stop this War in IRAQ and bring our soldiers home, and for all those old fogies who want the war to continue remind them it was built on a lie and therefore you will not be victorious.

WE NEED A NEW CONGRESS, NO MORE REPUBLICANS, NO MORE DEMOCRATS

NO MORE INDEPENDENTS, THE USA NEW REPRESENTATIVES OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. ONLY ALLOW THEM TO SERVE TERMS OF 1 YEAR AT A TIME THAT WAY WE CAN MONITOR MORE CLOSELY THEIR PROGRESS. IF THEIR NOT FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WHY SHOULD THEY SERVE A LIFETIME IN OFFICE CORRUPT SELLING OUT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE FOR EVERYTHING FROM PIMPING MALE PROSTITUTION ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE WHITE HOUSE, TO INDECENT EXPOSURE AND GOD KNOWS WHAT ELSE, OH DON'T FORGET THE DRUNK FROM THE PAST ADMINISTRATION THAT RUIN THIS COUNTRY AND PUT US IN THE CURRRENT POSITION WE'RE FACE WITH RIGHT NOW. Look, the truth is not always pretty and that's the bottom line.

I SUPPORT PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA AND THAT'S THAT!!!

Sandra Dickens of MD 11:02AM January 26, 2010

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