Would FDR be electable today?

Obviously hypothetical, somewhat frivolous and posthumous. But I wonder what the take here is. Would FDR be electable today?

His oratory was in a completely different class than any contemporary politician I know of.

The country is more than ready for the message, but there's nobody capable (or willing) to espouse it.

He's over a hundred, and dead. Only John Ashcroft loses to corpses.

Oh, wait...you mean, if he were alive? Oh, well, then...sure.

:dunce:

The executives of companies in New York rode in on the Long Island Railroad and drank their breakfasts and dinners in the club car. That car was called the "Assassination Special." They said things like "If That Man is re-elected...this will be our last free election." And this was a big joke: "Roosevelt was assassinated and his wife was run over on the way to the funeral. Haw-haw-haw!"

In fact, if Roosevelt were still alive, he might be very sympathetic to the plight of Bill Clinton...certainly more sympathetic than a lot of the Democrats that stabbed him in the back during his administration.

and like many concider Obama unelecatable many would think the same of FDR.
It's a good thing FDR ran in the 30s. Today he would be the subject of endless "is he .... enough' and is he electable.
i think the American people,however, would exercise good judgement and elect him regardless just like so many support obama though the msm and some people think he cannot be elected.
electability is only limited by a person's limited thinking.

He ran as a conservative Democrat.

The "TRAITOR! DLC! WHORE!" chorus would eat him alive.

--p!

With the expedited campaign schedule, FDR would've had to have created his brain trust and come up with the New Deal before the primaries started. The anti-DLC people would certainly favor him over John Nance Garner.

when he espoused such things as "all we have to fear is fear itself". And then he set to work. He surrounded himself with some good minds...he listened to them. When something didn't work, he tried something else.

Above all he confronted the American People with the trials to be faced, encouraged them, and help fit us to muddle through.

Granted: he was a polarizing figure in many ways (I don't think there was much indifference when it came to feelings about FDR) but he and his administration (including the military) were what the country needed at the time (3+ terms says something).

Remember his "Four Freedoms": Freedom from Want,
Freedom from Fear,
Freedom of speech,
Freedom of Worship.

We could sure use someone like him now...

Transformational Change For America And The World - JOHN EDWARDS for PRESIDENT 2008

:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:
:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:
:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

A true revolution of values

"I'm proposing we set a national goal of eliminating poverty in the next 30 years." - JOHN EDWARDS 08

Building One America Starts in New Orleans - JOHN EDWARDS 08

Silence is Betrayal - JOHN EDWARDS 08

Moral Leadership - JOHN EDWARDS 08

Ending Poverty in America - edited by Senator John Edwards

If you go by the fact that our candidate's must now "look" Presidential (the only reason I'd argue Mitt Romney is even a candidate), then I'd have to say no. Todays' electorate would never elect a man in a wheelchair with a debilitating disease like polio.

On the flip side, one of the reasons FDR was such a good choice to lead the country through the depression is BECAUSE he was rich (former Governor of NY, he was quite wealthy) and understood the banking system so well. He helped create the FDIC and and the SEC. He understood the need for Public Works Programs to put money into the hands of the working class to spur on the economy.

I'm not an Edwards fan, but when people like Ann Coulter call him a hypocrite for claiming to want to champion "poverty" while living in a multi-million dollar home and being worth millions of dollars, just don't know a damn thing about history.

I seem to recall that FDR came from a family worldview which held that those of wealth had a responsibility towards their nation's well being.

Some believe he suffered from Guillain-Barré syndrome.

He would not have a fucking CHANCE!!!!

:wow: People still believe in something,...that no longer,...

well,...

UGH@

It is a different world.

Although I think that's not entirely Obama's fault. Today's culture demands that politicians use small words and talk to us like we are idiots. Democrats don't do this quite to the level that Bush does, but they still do it. FDR's speech writers had more to work with because they didn't have to dumb anything down.

Could fight like a lion, negotiate like a coward, the intellect of a scholar, and could talk to the public like an idiot.

I voted no because the corporate media would paint him as a socialist and the brain dead amongst the electorate would buy that meme and never vote for him. The rest of us would investigate him and see that even if he WAS a socialist, at least he would be a Democratic socialist and not authoritarian in the least.

And strongly believed in using government to preserve capitalism, but also to make it so that all Americans could reap the benefits from it, not just a few.

Interesting that you mention that authoritarian aspect. Right around the time that FDR was inaugurated, many of his advisors, including his wife, were suggesting that he needed to rule as a benevolent dictator in order to deal with the depression. FDR refused to do so and dealt with the depression through the usual channels.

The right wingers can harp on all day about how the New Deal had mixed results at ending the depression. FDR is the greatest president of all time because he saved the United States from totalitarianism in the 1930's and the world from totalitarianism in the 1940's.

His enthusiasm and charm might carry him a little ways, but the media would make it supremely hard for him to paint himself as "communicating" with the common man. Also, no one would want to hear FDR's tax proposals.

in power today. I think he'd be smeared and marginalized as a kook by these fascists in their mass media.

I don't think FDR could be elected today. The press would make an issue over his paralysis. So would many voters. I do not see him as a Liberal. He was at best a middle of the road Democrat. Folks here on the DU would probably not support him for that reason.