-A Little Historical Perspective-In FDR's 1st year unemployment grew from 23.6% to 24.9%

[mikekohr]

By the end of FDR's second year in office in 1934, he began to turn the corner on the LONG road back to recovery:
------------------------------------------------clip-----------------------------------------------------------------
see:http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/Timeline.htm

1934
Congress authorizes creation of the Federal Communications
Commission, the National Mediation Board and the Securities
and Exchange Commission. (More)
Congress passes the Securities and Exchange Act and the Trade
Agreement Act. (More)
The economy turns around: GNP rises 7.7 percent, and
unemployment falls to 21.7 percent. A long road to recovery
begins.
Sweden becomes the first nation to recover fully from the
Great Depression. It has followed a policy of Keynesian
deficit spending. (More)
1935
The Supreme Court declares the National Recovery
Administration to be unconstitutional.
Congress authorizes creation of the Works Progress
Administration, the National Labor Relations Board and the
Rural Electrification Administration. (More)
Congress passes the Banking Act of 1935, the Emergency Relief
Appropriation Act, the National Labor Relations Act, and the
Social Security Act. (More)
Economic recovery continues: the GNP grows another 8.1
percent, and unemployment falls to 20.1 percent.
-------------end of clip-------------------------------------

The key differance here is that President Obama took office
as the economy was teetering on the edge of economic
depression, FDR inherited the historic standard of economic
failure. With a little historical perspective it becomes
clear that President Obama has mirrored the economic
accomplishments of President Roosevelt as far as these
differing scenarios allow for comparison.
FDR had critics on the right and on the left, and his
administration like President Obama's was not perfect, but
then nothing touched by human hands ever is. The key
sentence in the above timeline and link is under 1934,
"A long road to recovery begins." And the adjective
"long," is the key word in that key sentence.
If we want to avoid the drawn-out, agonizing pain of economic
recovery we have to quit electing the people, whose economic policies have been in
place when 9 of the last 10 recessions began: Republicans.
see:
http://bureaucountydems.blogspot.com/p/history-of-recessions.html

mike kohr
Bureau County Democrats
http://bureaucountydems.blogspot.com

[liberal N proud]

1. Thank you for today's history reminder

:hi:

[Bluenorthwest]

2. The key difference is that FDR knew how to communicate

The man had talents that he used to connect with the people, the voters. He also did not waste time making excuses, nor coddling the right wing.

[phleshdef]

19. No. FDR had a Senate willing to toss his salad & did not have to deal with 24/7 political tabloidism

The willing Senate that he never had to really wrangle with over much of anything is the reason he was able to push his policies. No matter what anyone says about either President, there is no getting around that fact. Give Obama a filibuster proof majority of progressive Senators, then we would have had the most progressive legislations. You don't have that, you don't get that. Period.

And if a guy with the charisma that Obama has was able to enjoy a time without a nationally exposed media hellbent on crucifying anyone and everyone for a story, there would be no communication problem because he wouldn't be competing with that message.

[LawnLover]

29. Are you saying Obama doesn't connect with voters?

Who are you kidding? Whenever he puts himself out there, people LOVE the guy. His ratings have raised since the midterms -- DESPITE the constant hammering of the media and the Pubcans.

[lame54]

3. and we are going into our 3rd year...

what happened to year 2?

[leveymg]

4. Ummm. Read your own article. In FDR's 2nd year, unemployment fell 3.2%, the 3rd 1.6%.

Unemployment started at a higher baseline in 1932, true, but if the same measure were applied, the U.S. unemployment rate would now be below 5%.

Sorry, BHO is no FDR. He's a competent crisis manager who has stabilized a disintegrating the status quo, but not the transformational figure, the "Hope and Change" we were led to expect.

I wish that loyalists stopped trying to make such comparisons. It's not favorable.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[leveymg]

22. I didn't make this comparison, the OP did. And, do you have to get personal?

Actually, rise and fall in the unemployment rate is always expressed as points, a percentage of total. So a five point drop is a five point drop, whether the overall rate is 30 percent or ten percent.

Don't be condescending.

[Donnachaidh]

5. "Obama has mirrored the economic accomplishments of President Roosevelt"

:wow: :rofl:

FAIL. Not even close.

Want to make comparisons he's far closer to Hoover. The dead horse of claiming Obama is this century's FDR is already starting to smell really REALLY bad.

[leveymg]

6. Is this the daily message from the WH press office? Run it up the flagpole, and see who salutes.

Pretty pathetic. They need some fresh blood and ideas in there, as well as at the DNC, DSCC, and DCCC.

Dump 'em all, and put Howard Dean back in charge.

[Donnachaidh]

12. Dean, Grayson, Feingold and Weiner - and Dennis K.

THOSE folks have the *cherries* to become the sons of FDR.

I am more offended by people insisting that Obama is the new FDR. The minute he allowed insurance company lobbyists to weigh in on that mess he tried to pass off as healthcare reform -- he lost any chance of using that moniker again.

"We was duped" -- far more than we thought we ever could be. :puke:

[ProSense]

9. Can you imagine what President Obama's fate would be if

unemployment jumped 5 points after the mid-terms (see chart below)?

[Donnachaidh]

10. *can you imagine* - just another deflection from the facts

And it goes along with the imaginary *chart* referenced :rofl:

[ProSense]

11. See post 8 below

the chart isn't imaginary. Sorry, forgot the little blue link. Crazy of me to assume that anyone would see the post below ("Here's a chart") in such a short thread. What the hell was I thinking?

[Donnachaidh]

13. again, use of charts and tools to deflect the reality based world

Sorry if the crowds are no longer watching the spin with gusto. :shrug:

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mikekohr]

28. It Took FDR,The Most Accomplished President Ever, Time to Undo Republican Economic "F" Up

?

Flip this chart over and superimpose it over the one above. They match up rather closely.
Reality: Hoover ='s Bush,
FDR ='s Obama

?

Job creation graph, Truman to Bush: http://bureaucountydems.blogspot.com/p/job-growth.html

mike kohr
Bureau County Democrats
http://bureaucountydems.blogspot.com

[creon]

7. Different situation

Not really comparable. The depression was 3 years on in 1933, and the situation had not improved during the Hoover admin.
The Dem's had a huge majority in 1933, and were, essentially unified. The GOP was badly beaten and demoralized.

[ProSense]

8. Here's a chart

[treestar]

14. The same people who lionize FDR now

Had they been around at the time, and had to deal with the day to day progress or lack thereof, would have been bashing him the same way they bash Obama now.

[Donnachaidh]

26. nice crystal ball gazing

spin baby spin. :rofl: :eyes:

[LawnLover]

30. Wow.

The nastiness around here is disheartening. I know things aren't all roses and sunshine, but Jesus.

[avaistheone1]

31. Why would you want

to diss FDR when he was such a giant no one to this day can fill is shoes in any form?

[treestar]

35. Whaddya mean, crystal ball?

This requires no prediction of the future. I am talking about the past.

The past concentrates itself enough that you can look back on it without remember the day to day difficulties. Things that were hard then seem funny even, now.

So I stand by my point. FDR's admin. had struggles too, and many years of work.

[impik]

15. Nice try, but you're talking to the wall. Facts and history means to these people as much as

they mean to Palin.

[ampad]

20. Maybe Huffington Post should write an article on it

and pass it around as a rumor.

[Jennicut]

34. Ha! Yeah, they might try to actually post something that actually informs

people now and then. And I used to respect Arianna.

[Japanbest]

17. Problem is, we are at the end of the second year

where's the turnaround?

[craigmatic]

18. FDR made the depression palitable to people he spoke to the people and made them feel like he was

working for them. Obama just got in and pushed his own agenda without really selling it to the people. FDR figured out a way to ride the anger by being president for the common people and making enemies of the rich. Obama got run over by the the anger of the common people and made friends with the rich.

[ClarkUSA]

23. It's obvious FDR didn't man up. He was also an elitist corporate shill sell-out.

:sarcasm:

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

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[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

25. But the Great Depression started in 1929 - 4 years before FDR took office.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/US_Employment_Graph_-_1920_to_1940.svg

This chart shows that the tide had been stemmed long before FDR took the oath of office, roughly in 1932.

For Obama, the hemorrhaging of jobs only began just before he took office - roughly 4 months prior. This makes a comparison actually a lot more favorable to Obama in this context, given that the worst was still yet to come when he stepped into the job, whereas we'd already seen the worst of the Depression by the time FDR did. In other words, Obama had to stop the loss of jobs before he could start creating new ones, while FDR could transition directly into creating new jobs.

[mikekohr]

27. Excellent observation Nicholas, keep the facts coming, no matter how unpopular

or inconvenient.

mike kohr
Bureau County Democrats
http://bureaucountydems.blogspot.com

[Drunken Irishman]

32. Agreed.

Not only that, but I'd wager it politically helped FDR that the Great Depression happened four years prior to his administration because all of the economic meltdown happened under a Republican president.

Pres. Obama, however, came into office during the worst month for jobs during the 2007-2009 recession. So while the recession started under a Republican president, the worst of it happened the month Obama was sworn into office. That really blurs the line for many Americans.

[Drunken Irishman]

33. More perspective - FDR's second term started with a major recession.

A recession similar to what we've just recently seen. Unemployment in the first year of his second term ballooned to 20% nationally.

In 1938, unemployment was 19% nationally.



So while Roosevelt got America on the right track, it was a very slow climb to the top.