Reply #27: Roosevelt was the first modern successful national Democrat.

[Drunken Irishman]

Wilson had success, but only got in because the Republicans split the ticket between Teddy Roosevelt and Taft and even then, he barely won reelection four years later. Prior to Wilson, though, the Democrats were not a national party. They rarely held the White House and while they were a far bigger player at the local level, it generally went: Republican President, Republican Senate, Democratic Congress and Democratic Governor. Then Roosevelt came along and completely altered the Democrat's image nationally.

From 1869 to 1933, Roosevelt's victory -- a span of 64 years -- only two Democrats held the presidency: Cleveland & Wilson. And even Cleveland lost to the Republican Harrison for a second term, only coming back four years later to claim 3-point victory over Harrison.

Think about that for a second, in a span of nearly a lifetime, the Democrats only held the White House for 16 years. That's pathetic.

64 years after Roosevelt's term ended, there have been six Democratic presidents (Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton, Obama) and six Republican presidents (Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush and Bush). If you don't count Ford, who didn't win his election, there has been one more elected-Democrat in office than the Republicans over a similar timespan where there were 11 Republican presidents to the 2 Democratic.

So Roosevelt took a party that had been successful at the local level and made it a player on the national scene. Even if you ignore what he accomplished as president, that alone made it possible for the likes of Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton and Obama to attain the presidency. Because before he took over, Americans didn't vote for many Democratic presidents. They sure do now.