In his column today, Krugman complains that Democrats "wanted another F.D.R., yet feel that they’re getting an oratorically upgraded version of Michael Bloomberg instead." In fact, FDR ran in 1932 more on personality than policy. He even ran on balancing the budget, attacking the meager half measures of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. He governed, obviously, quite differently. The reason FDR won so convincingly was the power of his optimism and energy at a time when the GOP could only offer gloomy "realism" anchored to a dogmatic ideology. Roosevelt, like Obama, was never fixed to any particular ideological pole star, but instead guided himself by pragmatism.
FDR in 1932 is a great comparison to Obama in 2008.
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