Romney makes the case for Landon/Knox '36 [View all]

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Romney makes the case for Landon/Knox '36

By Steve Benen

In 1936, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was seeking a second term during awful economic times. The New Deal was making a difference, but on Election Day, America's unemployment rate was 17%.

How in the world could an incumbent president win re-election with a 17% unemployment rate? Actually, it was pretty easy -- voters realized Roosevelt had inherited a brutal economic crisis, and while conditions were still awful, the economy was starting to improve, and Americans weren't willing to give power back to the party that had created the mess in the first place. FDR won that year with 98.5% of the electoral votes, winning 46 of the 48 states.

I wonder what Mitt Romney's campaign would have said if he were running at the time.

We talked briefly about this yesterday, but Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom presented a new argument at a campaign stop in Ohio that strikes me as rather remarkable.

"The fact that (the economy) struggled through the last three years is not the fault of Barack Obama's predecessor; it's the fault of this administration and the failure of their policies to really get this economy going again."

I see. So, as far as the Romney campaign is concerned, the Bush/Cheney era has nothing to do with our current economic conditions. The economy is struggling, and it's entirely the fault of the president who inherited the worst crisis since the Great Depression.

I can only imagine Romney and Fehrnstrom barnstorming the country in 1936. "Look at all of these closed factories! Look at the 17% unemployment rate! Look at the widespread poverty and long bread lines! Clearly, Roosevelt failed and the New Deal was a disaster."

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