It has become a universally acknowledged truth in coverage of the 2012 presidential campaign, one repeated with increased fervor with each dismal jobs report, that no president has won re-election with an unemployment rate above 7.2 percent. But always there is the caveat: . . . since Franklin Roosevelt in 1936.
In the aftermath of last week's presidential address on jobs, that caveat should be more than an afterthought. FDR's victory three-quarters of a century ago has important parallels to the situation in which President Obama finds himself and provides vital lessons if he is to be similarly successful.
While Roosevelt had been elected in 1932 during a period of economic collapse, four years later the economy was still struggling. Unemployment in 1936 was 16.6 percent. The moment of national unity that marked Roosevelt's first hundred days had petered out, leaving behind a general dissatisfaction with large-scale, inefficient government bureaucracies and their stratospheric levels of federal spending and debt. Newspapers had coined the term "boondoggle" to describe the high-end dog shelters, city zoo monkey houses, safety pin studies and other New Deal projects that attempted to stimulate the economy. New entitlement programs such as Social Security had been passed, over strong opposition, but had yet to take effect.
While Obama might confront the propaganda machine of Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, Roosevelt faced off against a relatively more powerful William Randolph Hearst and his newspaper empire. In 1936 two-thirds of Americans read newspapers, which were vociferously anti-New Deal. Today, the tea party and a network of organizations funded by the Koch family and others focus their attacks on Obama. In 1936, charges of creeping socialism and the savaging of the Constitution were launched by the Liberty League and its affiliated groups, funded by a flood of money from the du Pont family and major corporations.
And yet when Election Day arrived, Roosevelt won by a landslide of historic proportions.
The differences between Roosevelt's era and Obama's are too numerous to list. Nevertheless, Obama and his advisers have much to learn from Roosevelt's triumph.
First, Roosevelt constantly underscored the contrast between his plan and his opponents' fealty to the policies and ideas that, in the decade before his election, had led directly to the Great Depression.
Second, Roosevelt made clear to the American people where the battle lines had been drawn. After the first two years of his administration, in which he attempted to work in concert with the business community, Roosevelt shifted gears in the summer of 1935. He sought to pick a fight with the richest men in the country, moving to significantly raise their taxes in the Revenue Act of 1935. In terms of government operations, the legislation was ultimately insignificant - it produced an additional $250 million in federal accounts, the equivalent then of running the government for 10 days. But revenue was not the goal. "This is a hell raiser, not a revenue raiser," as one congressman put it. Harper's Magazine wrote in June 1936 that the tax hike caused "more resentment against the president than any other act of his administration." Roosevelt did not shy away from that resentment from the wealthy elite. Indeed, when he asserted "I welcome their hatred" in the climactic speech of his 1936 campaign, it was because it worked to his political benefit.
Most important, in that summer of '35, Roosevelt had the courage to rebuild his presidency almost from scratch. When the set of national planning programs that made up the first New Deal - in particular, the National Recovery Administration and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration - proved ineffective and ultimately were ruled unconstitutional, Roosevelt changed course. His second New Deal instead emphasized putting Americans to work in the Works Progress Administration, building up the strength of unions and expanding the safety net with Social Security.
The policies of 1935 do not necessarily fit the America of 2011, but there are instructive political and policy lessons in the crinkling newspapers and crackling radio broadcasts of that era. The choice Obama confronts is not the one repeated ad nauseam by pundits in recent weeks: "Go big" and double down on stimulus policies to make a political point, or "go small" and seek to pass tiny, ineffective tinkers. Rather, it is one that Roosevelt faced in a similar moment: Offer new ideas or more of the same. As Obama moves from last week's speech to laying out an agenda for a second term, it is that decision that will define the rest of his presidency.
• Andrei Cherny, a former Arizona assistant attorney general, is an economic policy expert and the president of the national public policy journal and think tank "Democracy." He is also the author of a forthcoming history of Franklin Roosevelt and his battle with big-business enemies of the New Deal.
TeaPartyPatriot posted at 6:10 pm on Tue, Sep 13, 2011.
Linda Jordan, a private citizen entered Obama's Social Security Number into the "Self Check" section of the E-Verify website, only to find out that Obama's Social Security Number was flagged by E-Verify as likely being fraudulent.
She said she became concerned when she realized that Congress was not willing to investigate issues concerning Obama's identity, including whether or not he currently is using a fraudulent Social Security Number, and that federal law enforcement authorities also were doing nothing.
"Between October 2008 and May 2011, I submitted several requests to agencies and people with the legal responsibility and authority to investigate the use of forged documents and election fraud, concerning Obama's birth records and Social Security Number," she stated in her affidavit. "To date no one with the legal responsibility and authority has responded to any of these requests."
Jordan finally decided to take matters in her own hand.
"I considered myself to be one of the employers of the president of the United States," she said, "so I decided to sign up for E-Verify and see if I could determine whether or not I could find out something about his true identity."
Further research revealed that the SSA adds "Special Indicator codes" to identify Social Security Numbers that individuals obtained fraudulently.
According to an audit report authored by the Office of the Inspector General, Social Security Administration, titled "Effectiveness of Special Indicator Codes on the Social Security Administrations Numident File," dated August 2008, there were 9 special indicator codes as of November 2008:
1. False Identity
2. Noncitizen Not in Status
3. Multiple SSNs with Different Identities
4. Scrambled Earnings with New SSN Assigned
5. SSN Obtained Using Fraudulent Documentation
6. SSN Assignment Based on Harassment/Abuse/Life Endangerment
7. Fictitious Identity
8. Fraud – OIG Investigated
9. Fraud SSN Misuse
"Eight of the Special Indicators have to do with fraud of some kind," Jordan said. "It looks to me like the SSN Obama is using has been flagged with a Special Indicator suggesting fraud."
WND's phone call to the media office of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security went unanswered.
Whose Social Security Number is Obama using?
As seen in Exhibit 3, U.S. Air Force Col. Gregory Hollister, retired, has obtained from the Social Security Administration verification that the Social Security Number currently being used by Barack Obama is a number that was never issued to Obama.
Cerulean posted at 6:27 pm on Tue, Sep 13, 2011.
Good column; however, I am left wondering what the “new ideas” are that Obama might offer? Did you leave a clue with an inference that Obama could follow Roosevelt by facing the intimidation from the wealthy elite? Maybe even “welcome their hatred”. Is that new?
TeaPartyPatriot posted at 6:33 pm on Tue, Sep 13, 2011.
Despite our massive unemployment, the California legislature has passed AB 1236, which would prohibit state agencies, local governments, and special districts in California from requiring an employer to use the federal E-Verify system -- even when that employer is a contractor to the government... California continues to go down the toilet with that Jerry Brown thing almost ready to send it there permanently.
Nearly 20 years ago, California became the first state to crack down on immigration when voters approved a measure that cut off education, health and other benefits to illegal immigrants and their children. -- Now, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown is considering signing a bill that would grant financial aid to some illegal immigrants attending state colleges and universities...
California is the highest latitude Mexican state. Obama needs to send a bailout bill to congress soon to bail out his fellow illegals in California. lol
Leon Ceniceros posted at 6:43 pm on Tue, Sep 13, 2011.
I am sure that the professors at the University of California at Berkeley are smiling after reading this article. Yes, the Left-Wing Liberal faculty at the old "Better Red...than Dead" bastion of Socialism if not outright Marxism are jumping up and down with glee seeing Franklin Delano "To Heck with the Constitution...to heck with the Bill of Rights" Roosevelt....their Champion being pushed into the new Millennium.
What I don't understand is why the writer wants to take money away from the people that worked hard to earn it ...and give it to the people that hardly work.
Did the writer give half of his "A" grade to the students who partied and partook of the "weed" that was so and is still so readily available at Bezerk-ly and were going to receive a "F" ...to bring them up to a "C"...........I DON'T THINK SO, LUCY....as Ricki Ricardo would say.
So where does this writer get off on telling others to share 1/2 of their hard earned salaries or income through 50% taxation over $250,000.00 gross ...to give ...FREE FOOD STAMPS, FREE ACCCHS MEDICAL CARE...FREE UTILITIES...to people who don't want to work, have never wanted to work, never studied in school so that they could work.
If the writer wants to give 1/2 his own salary to help some one who doesn't want to earn a salary....he is free to do so....just don't force others to do the same....they made their income the old fashioned way..............THEY WORKED FOR IT....IT'S CALLED ...CAPITALISM.....THAT'S WHAT WE HAVE HERE IN AMERICA....IF YOU WANT MARXISM...GO TO CUBA.
NothingButTheTruth posted at 6:29 am on Wed, Sep 14, 2011.
Republicans have scored an upset victory in a House race that became a referendum on President Barack Obama’s economic policies.
Retired media executive and political novice Bob Turner defeated Democratic state Assemblyman David Weprin in a special election Tuesday to succeed Rep. Anthony Weiner, a seven-term Democrat who resigned in June after a sexting scandal.
Obozo will find the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come the most fearsome of the spirits
The Phantom slowly, gravely, silently approached. When it came near him, Obozo bent down upon his knee; for in the very air through which this Spirit moved it seemed to scatter gloom and mystery. It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face, its form, and left nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand. ... It thrilled him with a vague uncertain horror, to know that behind the dusky shroud there were Tea Party eyes intently fixed upon him
NothingButTheTruth posted at 6:40 am on Wed, Sep 14, 2011.
Absolutely right Leon. We worked hard to get where we are. It is called capitalism that built this great wealthy nation. That is what we have here in America, and it works well. If they want Marxism then they should go to Cuba where it has worked so well for them.
Slabside posted at 3:30 pm on Wed, Sep 14, 2011.
Great win by Turner!!!
zgranger posted at 10:06 pm on Fri, Sep 16, 2011.
FDR is Obamas Idle. If we weren't already in a war Obama would get us in one. What a putz.