RateItAll: The Opinion Network

FDR takes quite a bashing from people here who would have us believe that their little political zealots would have done a much better job. . .

This guy has to be the worst I've ever seen. He is the reason why government is so big and why people are so dependent of the government to live and breathe.

This left wing,brain dead,quasi socialistic,bigoted idiot of a president is easily the most overrated president of all time.The only reason why I gave this meatball 2 stars is because he did a good job rallying the nation's psyche during WW2.

His policies, which essentially created the American middle class, account for our prosperity to this very moment.

The modern historians are tearing the hide off this guy and exposing him for the bad president he was. The old lefto ass-kissing historians are dying out.

Franklin Rossevelt was not a great president. Everyone blames Hoover's policies for getting America into the Depression but FDR had the same policies for the first six years of his presidency! Those policies only extended and deepened the Depression. And the New Deal was a disaster. It created a culture of dependency and helped socialize America. We still suffer from FDR's New Deal policies to this day. However, FDR had singular vision and fortitude when it came to WWII. FDR defeated Nazism and he should be lauded for his wartime policies. The combination of bad domestic policies and superb wartime policies makes FDR only an average president. If I ranked all forty-two presidents from best to worst, FDR would likely fall somewhere between fourteen and twenty. FDR, along with his distant cousin Teddy Roosevelt, is the most over-rated president in U.S. history.

FDR is currently misunderstood and underrated, if not outright slandered by conservatives who only have Ronald Reagan to hold up for comparison (no wonder FDR's legacy causes them so much grief!) If you want to understand why FDR has been lauded so frequently, consider his three Republican predecessors: Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, & Herbert Hoover. Those three men were turkey presidents who had much in common with the current supreme court selectee--uninspired, gullible, and out-of-touch. FDR was courageous enough to abandon many of the failed policies of his predecessors: the support of prohibition and laissez-faire economics. And while abandoning the latter has had results that people continue to argue about, who on this message board can honestly say that we would be better off living under prohibition?

Probably the most overated president in history. Anybody with a background in economics knows his policies made things worse, not better. His socialist policies like the New Deal, Social Security, and the beginning of a large welfare system goes against the grain of capitalism. The economy was in shambles pretty much all his years in office. The depression could have ended a lot sooner, but it didn't. Japan tried to implement FDR's policies and it didn't work.

Franklin D. Roosevelt is clearly an overrated president; however, he also doesn't get credit for some things that often go unnoticed in today's revisionist history. First, FDR often gets credited for ending the depression when World War II actually accomplished this. Even one of RateItAll's most qualified presidential critics (at least from my readings of his comments) holds the opinion that FDR's policies did not end the depression or exacerbate it; however, this was Roosevelt's presidential challenge (as he should have never been in office during WWII). Perhaps, FDR couldn't do anything to end the depression or accelerate its end, but one doesn't get credit either way under those circumstances. FDR also ran for unprecedented third and fourth terms for no compelling reason (ie no one man is irreplaceable), and the U.S. was not at war when he ran for the third term. This action would have set a dangerous precedent that worked against the timely and peaceful transfer of power that American democracy depends had not the Constitution been amended to remedy this danger. Furthermore, FDR's attempt to pack the Supreme Court (by increasing the number of justices from 9 to 13 if memory serves) evidences his tendency to be Machiavellian to a tragic fault. The most costly failure was that FDR failed to keep Truman involved in the war and post-war decision-making process resulting in costly mistakes and a longer, exacerbated Cold War. On the plus side, Roosevelt was finally successful in dragging the United States into WWII, even if it meant intentionally dangling a vulnerable Pearl Harbor in front of the Japanese, and he wisely listened to his military advisors (most notably Gen. Marshall) in concentrating on the European theater first (though Adm. King strongly advocated a Japan first strategy); however, as it took a Japanese attack to push the U.S. over the edge (something that a wiser Japan would not have done and need not have done to achieve its shorter term necessities), Roosevelt failed in this regard as well from an efficient planning perspective. As for the monumental growth of the social structure during the Franklin Roosevelt Administration, the book is still out on that for me. While the end result has been undeniably disastrous to a substantial degree, some good has been gained, and I am not convinced that the subsequent perversions and abuses can be attributed to FDR in good faith. The end result is a 1 for being extremely overrated.

Along with Reagan, the greatest President of the 20th century. Like Reagan, his impact as President was substantial. He had a domestic and international impact. He faced more challenges than any other president in the history of this country beginning with the Great Depression and ending with WWII. His legacy and impact are underestimated.

He did not bring us out of the great depression, but the New Deal was commendable.

As you probably know by now, I hate FDR. The man was a racist, prejudice, murderer, and a tyrant/communist. First of all he did not get anyone out of any Depression. His New Deal failed. He tried saving Capitalism with a Socialist thoery. Secondly, I believe he allowed Pearl Harbor to happen. I cannot prove it, but there are some books and many many internet sites that suggest it. Thirdly, he was a tyrant. I mean, 4 terms? He never knew when enough was enough. He had to die before he could lose office. Finally, he illegaly imprisoned Japanese Americans in concentration camps. Just threw thier rights away just for being Asian. Now, with Social Security, I am one day going to have to support an aging community that I don't even know. Thanks Frank, you miserable piece of crap.

He did some good for our nation, but he is extremely overrated. So many of his fanatical supporters claim that he and his policies brought us out of the Great Depression. As I have said 1,000 times, this is absolutely false. What FDR did do was LEAD us through the Great Depression. He provided hope at a time of great national crisis. However, he did not bring us out of the Depression; the military and defense mobilization following U.S. entry into World War II revived the economy.

I always find myself having to explain this again: FDR betrayed our own country. Ever hear of Manazar? Hmmmmm? Look it up!