In gaffe, Biden says FDR led when market crashed

[Newsjock]

Source: Associated Press

Vice presidential candidate Joe Biden says today's leaders should take a lesson from the history books and follow fellow Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt's response to a financial crisis.

"When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened,'" Barack Obama's running mate recently told the "CBS Evening News."

Except, Republican Herbert Hoover was in office when the stock market crashed in October 1929. There also was no television at the time; TV wasn't introduced to the public until a decade later, at the 1939 World's Fair.

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2008/09/in_gaffe_biden_says_fdr_led_wh.php

[angstlessk]

1. damn him for dumbing down for the palin debates!!!!

[Triana]

2. Wasn't it Hoover who blustered: "Well, whatdya want ME to do about it!?"

(and definitely NOT on television, but he did say that, didn't he?)

Or am I mistaken?

[WCGreen]

3. I think he said, FiddleSticks...

[Triana]

4. Well. That must have been helpful.

:sarcasm:

[JonLP24]

5. I don't consider that gaffe

He did lead during the great depression and he probaly even got on TV(where they around in 1930)

[bluestateguy]

6. Biden has already proven he is not a dummy

And honestly, the guy makes so many gaffes that nobody really cares, unless it is a really major screw up, which this is not.

[Schema Thing]

7. I suspect he was thinking of FDR's famous "fireside chats" on the radio

[4lbs]

8. I really don't see how it's a gaffe.

Yes, the Stock Market officially crashed in 1929 and Hoover was POTUS.

However, there was still a huge massive bear market in 1932 and the market had reached one of it's lowest points in history in July 1932, with the Dow being just 41 points. That's right, 41 points.

It wasn't until FDR took office in January 1933 and helped pass the Glass-Steagall Act that the market began to slowly recover.

So, therefore, FDR led when he took office.

[sandnsea]

9. It crashed in 1937 too

That's probbly the crash he was referring to because I just can't see Biden making that kind of mistake.

[4lbs]

10. You could be right.

From 1933 to 1937, the market rebounded from a low of 41 points all the way up to 194 points, which was pretty decent for that day.

However, a war scare in March 1937, combined with Wall Street scandals (sound familiar?), caused another crash back down to a close of about 99 points.

[jbnow]

11. "Gaffes" that are about history aren't as troubling

as those about here and now.

Well it could be if it was big and well known facts that they were wildly off about.
If he said Roosevelt was a German general who rode space ships that would be bad.

But saying TV and not radio and relating him to the time of the stock market crash instead of the depression that followed...not such a big deal. He wasn't there and he isn't running for history teacher.
(The TV part is funny though)

[farmboxer]

12. Republican complaints to CNN appears to have influenced

them. McCain, complaints about the liberal media is reverse psychology,working?

[Tiggeroshii]

13. In 1929, didn't the stock market only fall about 18 points?

From what I understand it didn't hit bottom until after FDR was president, right?

[CreekDog]

14. confusing a tv with radio in the 1930's is better than not knowing where Pakistan is in 2008

:eyes:

[brentspeak]

15. A reader on Politico contributed this:

"To be fair Ben, FDR was Gov. of New York at the time, and after Black Thursday in a speech at Poughkeepsie criticized the "Fever of Speculation," a lone voice against all the bankers and Hooverites touting the Economy's fundamentals. (Galbraith, "The Great Crash, 1929", 106-7) The imaginary TV is weird, but saying that FDR recognized the crisis and denounced Greed is pretty accurate..."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0908/Biden_garbles_Depression_history.html?showall

[ShortnFiery]

16. Considering the shallowness of Palin and the continuous "gaffes" of McCain, discussing this

is beyond inane. Joe Biden has forgotten ten times as many facts as Grampy and The Librarian will ever wrap their minds around. :eyes:

[Burma Jones]

17. The Biden "Gaffe" sounds like.......

a mistaken Trivial Pursuit answer.....


Given what all Americans are up against, this stuff is utter and complete hogwash.