FDR's Advice for the Democrats ... And His Amazing Prediction
The election over, Democrats wondered what to do. The Republicans had won back-to-back victories in presidential elections and appeared well along the way toward becoming the majority party. Democratic leaders were disconsolate, wondering what they could do to recover the White House. The year? 1924, not 2004.
Delaware attorney Willard Saulsbury was one of those wondering what the Democrats could do. On November 8, just four days after the election that kept Calvin Coolidge in the White House despite the many scandals involving the Teapot Dome investigation, Saulsbury wrote to his friend Franklin Roosevelt to commiserate about the Democrats' unfavorable position."I do not know that we would have had any chance to have anybody President at this time," he wrote glumly.
This was FDR's response, which included an amazing prediction concerning the course the economy would take:
