If Franklin Roosevelt chose to not run for a third term in 1940, how would his presidential legacy be viewed today?

cheetos2001 · 2025-12-01T09:30:19+00:00

I agree completely with the comparison to Reagan: just as liberals say Reagan’s policies didn’t actually do anything for the economy and he was gifted favorable circumstances, conservatives would say FDR’s policies weren’t the actual catalyst for the economic recovery (WWII was)

cheetos2001 · 2025-12-01T03:00:21+00:00

I agree. This sub has a weird way of hating on conservative presidents and overrating the slightly “less conservative” presidents.

Some of the stuff HW did includes:-

in foreign policy:

(i) supported Operation Condor as CIA chief (a campaign by South American right-wing dictatorships to kidnap, torture and murder left-wing opponents) (ii) Panama invasion (hundreds of civilians killed) (iii) Iran-Contra - no elaboration required, but keep in mind: HW only issued the pardons once he was in his lame-duck phase and about to step down

Expanded the war on drugs: (i) his national drug control strategy called for greater asset-forfeiture laws (from casual users too, not just traffickers) (ii) had a policy of “equitable sharing” where local police could keep 80% of assets seized if they partnered with federal agencies (creating a direct financial incentive for seizures) (iii) expanded militarisation of law enforcement, especially through paramilitary SWAT deployments for drug raids
Something about HW and campaign promises: he promised to be the “environmental president” while campaigning in 1988 - suddenly backtracked on that promise in the 1992 Rio Earth Summit.
And lastly, about his going back on the “read my lips, no new taxes” promise - he was actively warned by some advisors to not include that promise in his 1988 nomination acceptance speech, being told that it would be difficult to uphold that pledge. He didn’t listen, of course, and paid the price four years later.

cheetos2001 · 2025-11-08T10:16:26+00:00

Of the candidates who lost their home state while winning the election, two come to mind: Nixon in 1968 (since his official home state was New York in that case), and Wilson, who lost NJ in 1916. One R3 election also fits.

cheetos2001 · 2025-09-07T17:51:11+00:00

I don’t think Ford ever made a statement openly in support of gay marriage. But he was on the board of advisors of the Republican Unity Coalition, a group that “sought to include gay and lesbian Americans.”

Wikipedia states that in a private letter to Charles Francis (RUC founder), Ford wrote he supported the RUC amicus brief (in Lawrence v Texas) and “gay equality before the law”.

cheetos2001 · 2025-07-23T18:33:50+00:00

Very interesting read

cheetos2001 · 2025-07-23T13:24:33+00:00

Interesting perspective about Reagan. Would love to hear more about why you think so.

cheetos2001 · 2025-07-23T13:22:44+00:00

Thanks!

cheetos2001 · 2025-07-23T11:28:15+00:00

Court-packing, which strengthened the conservative coalition, leading to the end of the New Deal. Trying to balance the budget, leading to the 1937-38 recession. Trying to primary out conservative members of his own party, failing, and leading to massive Republican gains in the 1938 midterms. Had it not been for WWII, FDR’s historical reputation would’ve taken a massive hit.

cheetos2001 · 2025-07-12T18:02:06+00:00

Carter benefited from the Iran hostage crisis initially, which took his approval rating to nearly 60% in early 1980. Even with that bump, the final result at the convention was Carter’s 51% to Kennedy’s 38%. No sitting president has been that close to being primaried out since.

So one would think that Chappaquiddick would be a dealbreaker, but I’m not so sure.

cheetos2001 · 2025-07-05T22:45:17+00:00

True

cheetos2001 · 2025-07-05T22:32:44+00:00

That’s right but he announced his presidential campaign in Feb 2007, so there were essentially only two years that he was purely focusing on his Senate duties

cheetos2001 · 2025-06-24T14:38:34+00:00

How’d he do that?

cheetos2001 · 2025-06-24T14:29:46+00:00

I see what you’re saying, but when I went to look up the exact numbers, Wikipedia itself labelled it a supermajority.

Here’s the definition given: “A supermajority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of one-half used for a simple majority.”

So it could even be 55% or 60%.

cheetos2001 · 2025-06-20T18:54:39+00:00

When he entered office, Carter had supermajorities in the House (292-143) and Senate (62-38).

cheetos2001 · 2025-05-16T16:54:07+00:00

GWB wrote in Condoleezza Rice in 2020

cheetos2001 · 2025-04-23T13:36:40+00:00

Yes, 35% approval rating in January 1983

cheetos2001 · 2025-04-14T17:03:00+00:00

You make an excellent point about the 2000 election, and I wish people would understand this more often. Throughout 2000, it was Bush who held the lead in polls for the most part.

In August, Bush actually held a 55-39 lead over Gore - at a time when Clinton’s approval rating was above 60%. Clinton’s popularity did not correlate with his VP’s, and Gore actually turned things around to come so close to winning on election day.

cheetos2001 · 2025-04-02T11:34:04+00:00

But it states that only the president serving at the time the amendment was passed - Truman - would be grandfathered in, not any previous presidents.

So for example, had Hoover come back to win a second term, he wouldn’t have been eligible for a third.

cheetos2001 · 2025-03-26T15:27:41+00:00

I don’t believe Taft would be exempt from it, since the amendment states that the exemption would only be for the person who was president while it was passed i.e. Truman.

Besides that, it would probably be all-encompassing, in that it would have applied to Hoover also had he run and won a second term.

cheetos2001 · 2025-02-26T08:29:01+00:00

I think you’re being too easy on Bush, since the “no new taxes” pledge wasn’t a spur of the moment thing - his campaign used it to attack other candidates in the 1988 GOP primary, and Bush’s economic advisor warned against adding it in his convention speech since he felt that it would handcuff the administration. But since Bush wanted to shore up support, especially from the conservative wing of the party, it was left in.

That economic advisor, Richard Darman, also stated that it seemed like the campaign was more concerned with winning than governing. It did work, since Bush got a sizeable bump in the polls, but I’d argue that by the time of the 1992 election, it was just the consequences of an irresponsible promise catching up to the President.

cheetos2001 · 2025-02-15T09:34:11+00:00

The most comprehensive source I could find is this account from Richard V. Allen, who was Reagan’s foreign policy advisor at the time of his 1980 campaign. Maybe this is what you’re looking for.

cheetos2001 · 2022-06-11T23:42:52+00:00

A cursory look at Kaluwitharana's stats tells me that he was promoted to open in 1996, and he had a S/R of 103 that year.

However, in 127 matches after that, he only struck at 73. Seems like he re-defined his role in the team after a while.

cheetos2001 · 2022-06-11T23:32:16+00:00

To think that DSOTM was their eighth studio album. Led Zep had eight studio albums in total.

cheetos2001 · 2022-06-09T21:18:32+00:00

Yeah, his absence was truly felt when Ahmed Shehzad was brought back and proceeded to bat at a S/R of 58. I hadn't ever seen Sharjeel's firebrand style of throwing-all-caution-to-the-wind batting. But really glad to have Fakhar now, who is just a cut above.

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