(James McCown) wrote in message . com...
"Edwin Johnston" wrote in message ...
Notice the irony at the end of the following piece:

It's too soon to tell whether Reagan fits the bill
By JONATHAN TURLEY
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory...utlook/2625617

At one time, Reagan supporters were content with their stated desire to have
their man on the dime rather than Roosevelt, credited with such small feats
as saving the nation from the Great Depression and the world from fascism.
Roosevelt is long dead, however, and what has he done for us lately?

Turley is repeating the greatest myth of the 20th century. FDR took
office in 1933. In 1937 the stock market crashed again and by 1939 the
unemployment rate was at 20%.

Roosevelt's new deal policies exacerbated and prolonged the great
depression. He didn't save anyone from it.

But he was a master of manipulating the media, and of using the force
of government to do so, in effect FDR was able to rewrite history as
it happened. Few people remember that by the time FDR took office the
economy was actually trending up again. A similar situation is now in
effect where the economy has been trending strongly upward for almost
a year now, yet most people only hear the doom and gloom.

FDR's economic policies, especially the defacto devaluation of the
dollar by 40% caused great economic disruption and only WWII saved the
US economy. I have often wondered if FDR was almost forced into going
to war due to his inability to deal with the economy in a successful
way.