Last week, I wrote a diary, "Obama and oligarchy" that was inspired by Obama's blogger conference--particularly his statement:
This notion that somehow I could have gone and made the case around the country for a far bigger stimulus because of the magnitude of the crisis, well, we understood the magnitude of the crisis. We didn't actually, I think, do what Franklin Delano Roosevelt did, which was basically wait for six months until the thing had gotten so bad that it became an easier sell politically because we thought that was irresponsible. We had to act quickly.
I took this to be a particular statement, given that FDR's first "100 Days" is easily the most famous legislative period in American history. But today, Thomas Ferguson (father of the "investment theory of political parties") has piece "The Story Behind Obama's Remarks on FDR" cross-posted at New Deal 2.0 and Huffington Post that first explains Obama was referring to the period between the election and the inauguration--a period of four months, not six, and then discusses what actually happened during this time.
Referring to Obama's statement, Ferguson writes:
Perhaps it was just a slip. But in 2010, even slips can be revealing -- and this one comes from a definite part of the political spectrum. The president was repeating a canard that goes back to the circle of die hards around President Herbert Hoover as he exited the White House in a cloud of bitterness in 1933. In recent years, as a vast campaign against the memory of the New Deal has gathered steam, such claims have gone mainstream. For example, take the carefully hedged version recently put forward by Amity Shlaes in her study of the New Deal, "The Forgotten Man": "But Roosevelt was not interested in cooperation. We will never know all his motives, but it was clear that a crisis now could only strengthen his mandate for action come inauguration in March."
We are unlikely ever to know for sure. But as President Obama took office, the Council on Foreign Relations was cranking up a remarkably one-sided conference purporting to be a "Second Look at the Great Depression and the New Deal." Ms. Shlaes was a prominent participant, as was the Council's co-chair, one Robert Rubin, whose myriad protégés thronged the Obama Treasury and economic councils.
Whether our highly intellectual president picked up the idea by reading it or hearing somebody else say it, it was, and is, in the air. And you can be sure that his words will now be rattling around for years to come and likely cited as proof of Franklin D. Roosevelt's "irresponsibility."
Now this strikes me as truly remarkable. It suggests that Obama has been far closer all along to his rabid rightwing critics in his mis-understanding of economics and economic history than anyone could possibly imagine--not to mention his views of FDR as a remarkably cynical political actor. (Not like him!)
Driving home from work I endured NPR's inexplicable decision to give Jonah Goldberg airtime to admit that it is "more fun" for conservative pundits to be out of power (actually, I agree, it is more fun having Jonah out of power. Conservatives breaking the Planet isn't fun).
From my non-expert understanding of the subject matter, Alter does a fine job smashing up Shlaes' arguments throughout, but the highlight is the callers and emailers, who give me some sense and hope that conservative New Deal denialism isn't sticking with the public. In particular, at the 8:00 mark in the program, the very first caller actually attended FDR's inauguration and was 16 years old at the time, working as a Senate page. He makes a point of noting Shlaes' perception of history ignores that by 1935-36, things clearly had visibly improved. NPR's host stupidly insists on moving on to other callers in the too-quick manner of NPR, but Alter makes a point of getting contact info from the caller, so hopefully we will hear more from this man. There are very few people alive who were old enough to remember the New Deal in progress, never mind that actually worked in Washington and knew the players. The guy also has a good quip about the 20th Amendment (also from 1933) saving the country from 2 more months of Bush.
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