This is now the election year of 1940, and if I remember right, the NY Times supported NY Republican businessman Wendell Wilkie. If you wanted a modern day equivalent to Wilkie, might I suggest: Mitt Romney?
Roosevelt's national debt in 1940 was about 42% of GDP, roughly where it had been in 1934, and the Times was clearly upset about it.
Obama's national debt in 2010 is 98% of GDP, up from 65% when the Republicans were in last charge, in 2006.
So, what are the chances that the NY Times would support a moderate Republican against even the most radical of Democrats? Well, we could ask John McCain...
Wilkie was a Hoosier, and today we’d lambast him as a RINO. On some issues he was about as far left as FDR. Kind of a replay of today; no real conservatives around. Your comparison of Wilkie to Romney is fairly accurate. No way the slimes endorses Romney in ‘12.
In 1940, despite FDR’s Depression-prolonging deficits, the United States still had enough wealth and manufacturing capacity to finance and produce material to win a global war. Today, with the massive debt we’ve already piling up with no end in sight, and with little or no manufacturing base, I doubt we could do the same.
Food for thought.