Hoover and Roosevelt

Early this morning we were watching the History Channel air a piece called Presidents.  It was a short history of all the presidents, where they came from, what they accomplished, etc.

According to THC, Hoover was extremely intellegent, well thought of, with a reputation for good business decisions (he was a millionaire), and very popular with the public.

His problem was that he had the misfortune to be president when the Great Depression hit the country in 1929.  He tried to help, of course, but his other problem was his solution.  It wasn't to use the resources of the government to bail the country out, but to ask industry to voluntarily come to its assistance.  Of course industry failed to step up to his requests, and the Depression deepened.

When Roosevelt defeated Hoover in his bid for re-election, he immediately stepped in with massive help from the federal government, thus saving the country.

He subsequently went too far, in my opinion, but this little bit of history may be somewhat relavent to our current situation.