[Verginius Rufus]

On one of the call-in shows over the weekend on C-SPAN, some woman who identified herself as African-American complained about how Obama has been criticized for being slow to come up with a strategy to deal with ISIS. She said she has been watching the Ken Burns series on the Roosevelts and that when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, FDR didn't know what to do either and went off to Shangri-La (the place now called Camp David).

That was news to me but I haven't been watching the Ken Burns series. FDR's "day of infamy" speech was delivered to Congress on December 8, the day after the attack. Does Burns really imply that FDR was at a loss what to do and went to Shangri-La? I figure he might try to use the series to help Obama, but that might be going a bit too far.

[irishjuggler]

Does Burns really imply that FDR was at a loss what to do and went to Shangri-La?

No. I watched the Burns film, and the C-Span caller's description is inaccurate. The film had a lot of flaws, in my opinion, but this wasn't one of them. Everyone knows that FDR was itchin' to get into WW2 long before Pearl Harbor, and the film makes no effort to contradict that.

[reg45]

FDR had spent eight years weakening the military forces of the United States in order to implement his economic program. It took the United States two years to ramp up production and military strength.