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I don’t believe Americans saw Roosevelt as putting forth a ponzi scene. I believe they saw him as someone who was doing something to bring America back from the brink of destruction. You can argue all you want whether his policies prolonged the depression but millions of Americans believed they were necessary and people were working again. Obama has done nothing that has put people back to work.

Unemployment got worse under FDR. But Americans blamed Hoover. And the GOP. Just as today, Americans blame Bush, and the GOP.

You are correct. I've talked to a lot of people who lived though the FDR era. Some, like my late father, saw through the ruse and hated FDR with a purple passion. More saw him as a champion and savior for the poor, doing what had to be done to pull America back from the depths of economic calamity. This is the model which ObaMao no doubt wants to follow.

However, I think the more comparable model is Jimmy Carter. Americans, in general, did not hate him. They generally saw him as a likable fellow, too detached from the harsh realities in which they lived and in way over his head. Any Republican probably would have beat him. Reagan, however, beat him big because he articularted a clear vision and optimism to America.

Even then, it wasn't quite the 45 state cakewalk which history records. Many southerners (perhaps like today's African Americans) saw Carter as a source of regional pride-- the only president which they elected since Woodrow Wilson. I'm excluding LBJ, because he was seen as a Texan opportunist, not a southerner. Then there was a John Anderson factor-- Reagan was disliked by many of the RINO wing. Reagan would have still won by more than 330 votes had every Anderson vote gone to Carter but, as the map below shows, it wouldn't have affected only RINO country.

(Green states would have swung from Reagan to Carter if EVERY Anderson vote had gone to Carter.)