Obama Should Look to FDR Not Lincoln

[CrimsonWhite]

Pretty good read read. Liberals that worship at the altar of FDR should love it.

Enough Lincoln. More FDR. This is my shorthand advice to Barack Obama, who in several interviews has talked about how he wants to emulate Abraham Lincoln. He said that along with the Bible, the other book he would take with him to a desert island is Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals." It's a useful book -- but not if that desert island has high unemployment, a housing crisis, a frozen financial system and no consumer confidence. In that case, a book about Franklin D. Roosevelt would do better.

There need not be a contest between these two great presidents, both of them remarkable politicians. But the one quality Roosevelt had that Lincoln, at least in his popular portrayal, did not is sheer exuberance. FDR, who once called Al Smith a "happy warrior," was himself a happy warrior. It was his jaunty enthusiasm and his willingness to try almost anything to break the back of the Great Depression that mattered most. It had to -- after all, in the end nothing worked.

RealClearPolitics - Articles - Obama Should Look to FDR Not Lincoln