It's FDR's birthday today. Everybody par-taaay!

[Captain Hilts]

ER: Party on, Franklin!
FDR: Party on, old girl!

[Faygo Kid]

1. That's who we need. That's who Obama should emulate.

A fighter for us. Period.

[Bluenorthwest]

2. Should be a holiday!

[Misskittycat]

13. Certainly should! It's my birthday.

[dana_b]

15. up there with Washington and Lincoln

imo. I bet there would be a huge uproar if a national holiday was celebrated for him too though.

[Clio the Leo]

3. President Obama was the first President to use the House's new....

.... wheelchair accessible lectern Wednesday night. (what TOOK so long?)

Couldn't help but think of FDR when I read that.

[Captain Hilts]

6. Evidently, they dismantled the ramps around the Capitol the day after FDR died.nt

[customerserviceguy]

4. I shall hoist a beer

to the memory of the man who brought it back to America after the long national nightmare of Prohibition. If we could only show such sanity with regard to the war on drugs, it would be a truly happy day, indeed.

[Captain Hilts]

5. F.X.Matt of the F.X. Matt brewery in Utica, NY leaned on FDR about it the whole time he was NYgov -

Still bringing you Utica Club, Matt's, Saranac and Sam Adams:

[customerserviceguy]

11. Saranac makes a truly nice Big Moose Ale!

It's only available in the Winter Beer pack, but I hope they release it as a solo effort in six packs!

There is a Hyde Park Brewing Company, they feature FDR in their advertising, but their beer is lacking, sorry to say.

[Froward69]

7. FDR Was faced with a bigger mess than President Obama

he had NO game plan nor history to rely upon to bring our country back.

FDR had to invent or rather try everything. He had Failures and successes. His Successes outweighed his failures and we should be grateful of that.
the right hates him for his Successes in policy. and REALLY hates him for His supposed "redistribution of wealth".

President Obama Has a Game plan based in History from FDR to work from. I am Humbled and Grateful for that.

My Grand parents had a portrait of FDR in their Hallway. As he was the president who (simplistically) "gave them a Job", A place to live and restored their belief that America was the Greatest country in the face of the earth. (this after Living under a canvas for four years 1930-1934)

FDR is one of my heroes I will remind My family at our Dinner tonight to remember a great President who was a "traitor to his class" and made it possible for Us to be here.

This needs more Recs.

One of my favorite teases to republicans is that FDR was elected FOUR times in a row. once He had accomplished Wheat he was on Earth to do, God called him home.

On edit/ sir. :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot:

[Captain Hilts]

8. Yes, but a greater sense that the system was broken. Now, even Dems tie the Prez's hands.

Of course, conservative Dems existed in FDR's day, but at least there were still some Bull Moosers among Republicans who were willing to work with the Prez.

I continue to be STUNNED by how UNcooperative the Dem leadership is with a newly-elected Dem prez. Sam Nunn, etc. blocked a lot of the things Clinton wanted to do in his first year and Dems are also doubting and blocking what Prez Obama wants to do. It's maddening. He's been elected, let him have a 'go' at doing what he was elected to do.

[Froward69]

10. YA know

FDR had the "luxury" of a Deeper crisis. Thus he had a greater margin of Dems elected to the House and congress. Because of how bad the Depression became.

WE got Liuky that Obama was elected at the very beginning of our modern depression.

Frankly I believe that if we had 3 more years of negligence. the country (conservea dems repubs etc) would rally around Obama more.
(race baiting not taken into account)
As we all (including all of congress) have NO idea how bad it REALLY got in FDR's time. NOR how bad it could have gotten this time.



SO in my view it is that all of us are ignorant to how bad it actually was. thus it is far easier these days to be against President Obamas policies simply because We/They (meaning neodems, neocons, conservatives or opponents in general) have NO First person witness to give us a realistic feel of how bad this depression could have become.

[Captain Hilts]

17. VERY true. Ain't irony ironic?

[realFedUp]

9. Party like it's 1882?

hehehe. You rocked it Eleanor.

[Captain Hilts]

12. You got that right. Quite the party girl...

Eleanor, Franklin, and Eleanor's boytoy:

[Froward69]

14. honorable mention of Calvin

Coolidge on the left there. ;)

[Captain Hilts]

18. Huh?

Now, Grace Coolidge was a party girl too.

[Overseas]

16. K&R. Happy FDR Birthday !

I voted for President Obama hoping for a 21st Century Green FDR. I still cherish that dream.

It has been painful seeing Democrats fall under the right wing propaganda against FDR-- characterizing Democrats since then as "big spenders" when they supported public programs instead of privatizing American wealth again like it was back in the 20's before FDR.

Republicans have talked big spender against Democrats but in fact they're the ones who have run up the largest deficits in our history-- then they dump their mess onto Democratic administrations to clean up, calling for spending freezes and budget cuts during Democratic terms.

After so many years of Republican and Republican-lite management, our country was almost driven off a cliff again, so I expected that finally, Democrats would embrace the FDR legacy, knowing it was time for FDR style good government again and our global climate had been destabilized by excessive carbon emissions for decades so we all knew we needed intense greening. We gave them a super-majority to do that again, with a green push from the youngest democrats. Stand with the majority of us taxpayers-- bail us out with Medicare Part E (for Everybody) after being forced by the Bush Crash to bail out the banks. President Obama didn't get to negotiate the Bush Gang Bank Bailout so why should Republicans have gotten the right to negotiate our national health security?

I wanted even more teaching about Republican mistakes from the beginning. I've been glad to hear the few critiques our president has managed to slip into his speeches but I still want to hear more. When our economy was this unbalanced back in the 30's, FDR didn't hesitate to blame the economic royalists.

It has been sad for me to see my president push aside the progressive caucus when they are the ones who seem to honor FDR's best ideas-- making sure taxpayer money helps taxpayers in tangible ways, addressing the most urgent needs most efficiently-- like Medicare Part E, single payer, and pushing for massive jobs programs because our country's infrastructure was so neglected during the Bush Gang's war profiteering.

At minimum, I thought the Democrats could be corralled behind President Obama's healthcare address-- give the country the same insurance exchange our legislative representatives get. At the very least. And our right wing dominated media waved around the "You Lie!" story to distract us all from our president's message, so our very own Blue Dogs could honor the corporate Superpersons who funded their campaigns (aka bribed them). We allowed the country to see our Democratic supermajority grovelling for votes from its own party and for a 1% bipartisan vote.