The cold truth about Obama and FDR

[steve2470]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/04/1088674/-The-cold-truth-about-Obama-and-FDR

*snip*

Reacting to Wall Street's delusional rage against the President which I highlighted earlier, diarist David Mizner asks the pertinent question: why doesn't the President simply welcome their hatred? After all, Wall Street is deeply unpopular and Dems would stand to gain, right?

Well, the outrage is easy. I myself have shared in it. But honestly, the answer to this question isn't that hard. No need to resort to the comfortable, easy, self-righteous retreats of corruption or fecklessness. It's a function of two simple factors: money and votes.

Plainly speaking, FDR didn't need the bankers' money. Campaigning wasn't nearly as expensive in those days. Lack of effective mass communications made it harder to purchase persuasion. And the Powell Memo that led to the coordination of big business spending on elections was over 30 years away. Wall Street had money, but it wasn't as coordinated and it didn't go as far.

But that's not all. FDR also had the votes of the racist South. He couldn't afford to lose them. FDR had the opportunity to pass an anti-lynching bill, but he couldn't afford to do it and still get the New Deal passed:

*much more at link*

[Cooley Hurd]

1. "Campaigning wasn't nearly as expensive in those days. "

There's the crux.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. So the bankers own the world and nothing can be done?

Obama is a powerless puppet?

[bluestateguy]

3. You are referring to FDR's speech at Madison Square Garden in late October 1936

And I would remind you all that he didn't crank up the rhetoric like that until late in the campaign.