Will Obama be a Black Roosevelt?

It seems we stand on the brink of a brave new age. Our challenges are greater but our hopes are high. We have someone who can now breathe new life into the American economy

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Barrack Obama is at present straining at the leash to take over America. I would think his advent calender runs well into the third week of January. He has assembled a team of luminaries of the political and economic world. Among them his old rival for Democratic party leadership, Hillary Clinton. Through her he has the council of her husband, Bill. Hillary herself was right there in the White House for the whole of her husband’s two terms in office. Does this mean we are getting two and a half Presidents for the price of one?

I don’t doubt that she will do well as Secretary of State. As consolation prizes go I think it beats a Blankety Blank cheque book and pen, and a Bendy bully. I am sure she has paved the way for a female President after Obama’s second term.

Well he is going to need all the help he can get. America has not faced such Financial upheaval since 1929. When Franklin Deleno Roosevelt took over the Presidency in 1932 the country was nearly bankrupt. A quarter of the work force was unemployed, crop prices fell by 60%, leaving farmers in deep trouble. Two million people lost their homes. By the evening of March 4, 32 of the 48 states, as well as the District of Columbia had closed their banks. The New York federal reserve were unable to open the following day because they literally had all their money withdrawn by panicky customers.

Roosevelt acted quickly and with purpose. He proposed to congress a record number of bills, all of which passed within days. He had the sense not to rip up the relief program of his predecessor, he just re-named it. He invested $3.3 Million of federal money into public works. Most controversially he made all privately held gold the property of the US Treasury. This amounted to daylight robbery by a serving President! But he got away with it simply down to sheer strength of character.

Will Obama have the brains, the courage and foresight to lead America out of this economic maelstrom? We wait with bated breath.

As for Dubya, well, the recriminations started before he had even left office. The accusations were led by Oliver Stone and his film W. The President was portrayed as weak-minded and thin skinned. Furthermore he didn’t seem to do anything except kow-tow to oil barons and warmongering politicians. Maybe, just maybe, history will find some good in his administration, after all he would never come as close to being indicted as his predecessor, Bill Clinton. He had to hold back a nation hell bent on revenge after 9/11. In the end his reign was a difficult one and I hope people remember that.