H.W. Brands: For 2012, Obama Should Learn from FDR's Reelection
[H.W. Brands is the author of "Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt" and, most recently, "American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865-1900."]
Getting elected to the presidency is difficult; getting reelected is harder; getting reelected when the economy is dragging is nearly impossible. In American history, only one president has won a second term when the economy was in dire shape: Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936. This bleak record would seem to bode ill for Barack Obama, as he looks toward 2012 across a clouded economic horizon.
But Roosevelt's exception to the historical rule leaves some room for hope for Obama and his supporters. Despite an unemployment rate that remained above 15 percent-compared to less than 10 percent today - Roosevelt won 61 percent of the popular vote and swamped Republican Alf Landon of Kansas by the widest electoral margin in American history: 523 to 8.
Of course, Roosevelt held some key cards, not all of which Obama enjoys. First, he commanded large majorities in both houses of Congress throughout his first term: Democrats outnumbered Republicans nearly 2 to 1 in the House after the 1932 elections, and in the Senate by only a bit less. They increased their majorities in both houses in the 1934 midterm contests. Not every Democrat endorsed everything Roosevelt did; Southern conservatives, in particular, disliked aspects of the New Deal. But when Roosevelt asked something of Congress, he usually got it....
Read entire article at WaPo
Getting elected to the presidency is difficult; getting reelected is harder; getting reelected when the economy is dragging is nearly impossible. In American history, only one president has won a second term when the economy was in dire shape: Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936. This bleak record would seem to bode ill for Barack Obama, as he looks toward 2012 across a clouded economic horizon.
But Roosevelt's exception to the historical rule leaves some room for hope for Obama and his supporters. Despite an unemployment rate that remained above 15 percent-compared to less than 10 percent today - Roosevelt won 61 percent of the popular vote and swamped Republican Alf Landon of Kansas by the widest electoral margin in American history: 523 to 8.
Of course, Roosevelt held some key cards, not all of which Obama enjoys. First, he commanded large majorities in both houses of Congress throughout his first term: Democrats outnumbered Republicans nearly 2 to 1 in the House after the 1932 elections, and in the Senate by only a bit less. They increased their majorities in both houses in the 1934 midterm contests. Not every Democrat endorsed everything Roosevelt did; Southern conservatives, in particular, disliked aspects of the New Deal. But when Roosevelt asked something of Congress, he usually got it....