Obama as the new FDR? Oh, you betcha...

Well, yeah, he's going to turn a recession into a decade-long malease, just like 'ol FDR did, via faux populism and class welfare. But we knew that.

Anyway - I've been reading Anthony Beevor's The Fall of Berlin 1945, and I came across this passage on FDR's dealings with the ruthless Josef Stalin, and am finding it to sound...rather familiar:

[General] Eisenhower's political advisor, Robert Murphy, had been told by Roosevelt that "the most important thing was to persuade Russia to trust us". This could not have suited Stalin better...

Roosevelt's claim, "I can handle Stalin", was part of what Murphy acknowledged to be "the all-too-prevelent American theory" that individual friendships can determine national policy...

And we see how that worked out. A bit poorly for us, but even worse for those who spent a half-century under brutal occupation and repression.

Will Obama emulate FDR's Folley? Oh, you better believe it, and like last time, we won't be the only ones who pay...