Roosevelt: Helpful or Harmful?

"What is actually happening is often less important than what appears to be happening."

 - William V. Shannon, Dallas Morning News, 7-2-72

When I was a youngster I recall my parents and other members of the family talking about the "Great Depression."  I think, more than any one event in their lifetimes, it shaped their views about politics. To them, Herbert Hoover was the man who brought ruination upon the country, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the savior who rescued them. 

Now I read that President Roosevelt may not have been the godsend my parents believed he was.  He was more probably guilty of extending the misfortune they found themselves having to bear.  Those of you who are my age doubtless heard your folks talking about the Depression too, so Thomas Sowell's commentary may prove to be as interesting to you as it was to me.  His summation:

"Some of the people who most admired and almost worshipped FDR--poor people and blacks, for example--were hurt the most by amateurish tinkering with the economy by Roosevelt's New Deal administration."

I keep hearing that Rumsfield is on Bush's "blacklist" and won't survive into a second term. This article makes the case.

"It is now virtually certain that, should Bush win the 2004 election, Donald Rumsfield will not serve as secretary of defense."

David Warren rebuts these claims, at least where Rumsfield is concerned:

"As usual the story is false. Mr. Rumsfield was never in charge of Iraqi reconstruction, and has only appeared to have some (responsibility) because of his personal strengths of mind and will..."

Read the whole thing.