Everyone talks about FDR as being cold and distant.

[coloradodem2005]

How true is that? I never heard him characterized that way.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. The only ones I've heard say that

were my very Republican grandparents. FDR was a master at communications. His Fireside Chats made folks feel like he was a neighbor coming over to talk in their living rooms. He was considered anythng but cold during his lifetime by those who admired him. And since he was elected 4 times, I'd say that there were a lot who admired him!

[coloradodem2005]

3. Yeah, but I am talking about in 1932 before he was first elected.

When he was where Kerry is now.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. FDR did some bold things

like going to Chicago and accepting the nomination, somethng that wasn't always done back then. He had a vigorous campaign, so as to belie speculation that he wasn't fit to be president.

[Fenris]

2. He was cery much characterized that way

But only in the early years. Much of the anti-Roosevelt pundits of the time described him in those terms. And he was seen as such by a large percentage of the population.

Living in the present, FDR is almost universally respected and admired. But many people forget that he was not as loved while he was serving in office.

[cap]

5. what everyone??? Many people had pictures of FDR and Christ

in their living room wall during the Great Depression. According to my Mom who lived during the Great Depression, people REVERED FDR and Eleanor. There were some rich who hated him; but the common man loved FDR.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

6. I've always wondered about that, but there are a couple of clues...

...in his biography:

<http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/fr32.html>

1. His wife (married, 1905) was disliked immensely by the rightwing who launched quite a few smears that are ongoing to this day...sound familiar?

2. The fact that he went into politics in 1910 as a Democrat was not well-received by his GOP relatives and friends.

3. Perhaps the primary concern of those on the right was what he did during his Presidency to help America get back on its feet. There are a lot of "red flags" to the right wing in the next couple of paragraphs:

"He was elected President in November 1932, to the first of four terms. By March there were 13,000,000 unemployed, and almost every bank was closed. In his first 'hundred days,' he proposed, and Congress enacted, a sweeping program to bring recovery to business and agriculture, relief to the unemployed and to those in danger of losing farms and homes, and reform, especially through the establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

By 1935 the Nation had achieved some measure of recovery, but businessmen and bankers were turning more and more against Roosevelt's New Deal program. They feared his experiments, were appalled because he had taken the Nation off the gold standard and allowed deficits in the budget, and disliked the concessions to labor. Roosevelt responded with a new program of reform: Social Security, heavier taxes on the wealthy, new controls over banks and public utilities, and an enormous work relief program for the unemployed."

4. There was also a great deal of criticism of FDR by the rightwing in terms of how Europe was divided after WWII...they felt that FDR had been too weak at Yalta and Potsdam and allowed Stalin to have too much. IMHO, there was little that could have been done to "free" an eastern Europe already occupied by Soviet armies except go to war again...nobody wanted this.

[Bush was AWOL]

7. FDR was loved or hated

More people loved him than hated him, though. The common working class family types loved him. I read my grandfather's WWII diary and he was in the pacific when they got news that FDR died and he talked about how he and all of his crewmates were in tears for hours.

[coloradodem2005]

8. Well Bush is also loved and hated.

Do you think that there are more people that love him than hate him?

[Bush was AWOL]

9. No, more people dislike Bush

FDR won landslides. Bush was not even elected and won't be again this time around.

The reason people disliked FDR was out of greed and dislike for his new deal policies.