[ex-Texan]

Sorry, but I must disagree. FDR was a great President for three terms but he should have retired and turned the job over to Harry Truman. Stalin ran circles around FDR because his health was failing rapidly. FDR's fourth term was a big mistake. But the country was at war and FDR had strong popular support.

I rate Teddy Roosevelt much higher than FDR but, then, he was my childhood hero.

[TedsGarage]

FDR served only six weeks of his fourth term. Truman served the rest.

[KC_Conspirator]

I agree with you. FDR was a great president, but not for the reasons that liberals and academics like him - for creating big government. He is great because of his leadership during a real time of crisis in America, during the Depression and WWII, which today's liberals never seem to cite when fawning over FDR. Now I think that many of his programs were flawed and his big government schemes were not some carefully thought out plan, but just rash decision making. They certainly did not lift the US out of depression, but I don't think it prolonged it. Ceratinly his attempt to pack the Supreme Court should be met with scorn, but once again liberals alwasys seem to ignore his overstepping the Constitution.
Hell, if Reagan can admire him , so can I. I would also rank President's Reagan and Teddy Roosevelt over him for the 20th century.

[B.Bumbleberry]

FDR was a great leader in the sense that he was able to get people to accept his policies and programs, no matter how flawed. He was a horrible President in the sense that he came close to injecting socialism wholesale into this country and tried his best to destroy free enterprise.

He and his idealists mounted an unbelievably comprehensive attack on American business, to which they erroneously ascribed the cause of the depression. If he had not been thwarted by a courageous majority of the SC, we would have a totally different economy today and people would undoubtedly be much poorer.

For myself, I think the evidence weighs heavily in favor of those who think FDR prolonged the depression.

[steve8714]

Stalin ran rings around HST also.