Fred Barnes in WS - "Not Your Father's FDR" - Cites Prof. Burt Folsom's "New Deal or Raw Deal?"

The Weekly Standard ^ | 5/10/10 | Fred Barnes

[hillsdale1]

Roosevelt had another advantage over Obama, a small one. Newspaper publishers were hostile to FDR, but the White House press corps liked him. He controlled what they wrote by insisting his remarks at twice-weekly sessions with reporters be off-the-record. He decided what they could quote. The reporting tended to emphasize FDR’s intentions, not what might result from his policies. Obama, too, had a lovefest with the press until recently. But he dislikes being held accountable and has stopped holding full-fledged press conferences.

Presidential historian Fred I. Greenstein described FDR as “endlessly inspiring” in his book The Presidential Difference (rev. ed. 2009). Early in his presidency, Roosevelt stirred the public’s morale, giving “a stricken nation a valuable psychological boost,” wrote historian David M. Kennedy in Time. Can you imagine anyone saying such things about Obama? Perhaps during the 2008 campaign, but not since he’s been president. When Obama was inaugurated, 63 percent of Americans believed the country was moving in the wrong direction, according to a Rasmussen poll. Now 62 percent do.

[Verginius Rufus]

FDR had actually done things before being elected President. He had been editor-in-chief of the Harvard Crimson and actually worked at it (in contrast to Obama being president of the Harvard Law Review but letting others do all the work). He had been Assistant Secretary of the Navy, including the WWI years, and had been governor of the most populous state for 4 years. He passed the bar and actually practiced law. When he was stricken with polio, he had to fight back on his own.

FDR's background was completely unlike most Americans' but he could make ordinary Americans believe he understood their plight.

Obama has only contempt for ordinary Americans--but we're supposed to worship him anyway.