If you blame FDR for not curing the depression then you must blame the Republcan for pursuing policies in the 1920's that either led to the depression or once it came did nothing to alleviate it. Hoover kept reciting his mantra, Prosperity is just around the corner. The RFC offered money for expansion to corporations when the problem was a lack of purchasing power among farmers, laborers, and the middle class. He said that in the long run a dole would destroy the spirtual fiber of those who received it. FDR replied, People don't eat in the long run. They eat three times a day. . How would the spiritual fiber of American workers be improved by helplessly watching their families starve and shiver during the winter? The critics of FDR say the depression would have healed itself because big business, the investors and bankers would have had their confidence restored and the economy would have revived. They also claim that churches and charitable gorups in the private sector would have sustained the unemployed. At a time when inspirational leadership and new directions were needed, The Republicans would have presented the American people with the dour, platitude and cant spouting Herbert Hoover followed by Alf Landon, governor of Kansas, a state known for its hidebound conservatism. T he radical alternatives to FDR such as Father Coughlin, Francis Townsend, Huey Long and Communism were the real dangers to America,not the New Deal The New Deal preserved capitalism, free enterprise and the American way and did not destroy it. One must also consider foreign policy as it evolved under FDR. The Republicans and America Firsters like Lndbergh would have let England and France stew in their own juice and would not have aided England and the Soviet Union with lend-lease. The bill establishing the draft passed by only one vote due to Republican oppositon. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and Hitler's declaration of war finally jolted the Republcans out of their isolationism. America was fortunate to have FDR as its leader during these years. So to get back to the original thesis, let the critics of FDR give concrete polices that Hoover and Landon would have used to cure the depression. Yes, the war cured the depression but rearmament was the reason for Germany's return to prospertiy and merciless industrialization and agricultural collectivization by Stalin were the reason for the rising strength of the Soviet Union. Prove that anything like that happened in America or that the nation would not have been far less prepared for war under Hoover and Landon.

The preceding GOP leaders left us with an army training with broomstick guns and trucks for tanks. FDR had lend lease shipments on their way before congress voted.

I am amazed that the GOP gets to say they are the party for defense.

They did foist McCarthyism on us.

Recent GOP leaders have damaged our fiscal and moral standing.

GWB has given us a tarbaby in Iraq.

You are using a somewhat tired worn out argument. That it was a choice between FDR and say Hitler.What Ms. Shlaes and other seem to suggest is that there are alternatives. That Roosevelt made many mistakes that lengthened the Depression. Also Ms. Shlaes does not use Alf Landon as a possible counterweight to FDR but Wendell Wilkie . While FDR did do a great deal of good. The point is to realistically and honestly evaluate his performance. Seven years after his election the country was still in a Depression. A lot of his politics and policies where failures or even helped prolong the depression .

As for our preparedness for WW II in 1941 The U.S had the seventeenth largest Army. We where totally unprepared for War as witness both Pearl Harbor, Manilla, and the initial drubbing we took in North Africa.

Roosevelt took very little action toward getting the U.S ready for war. He also did very little to convince the American people about the necessity of getting involved . For someone who was supposed this masterful communicator his action there is less than stellar.

While I do think Roosevelt must rank among the great of American presidents and he did keep the country together during a difficult time. It is equally important to realize his failures.