And both men doctored the economy habitually.  Hoover was a constitutionalist and took pains to intervene within the rules – but his interventions were substantial.  Roosevelt cared little for constitutional niceties and believed they blocked progress.  His remedies were on a greater scale and often inspired by socialist or fascist models abroad.”

Deflation impacted the American worker the hardest.  In times of even moderate inflation wages increase (along with prices).  But during a deflationary cycle, wages either remain the same, or drop, or worse - disappear entirely.   It brings to mind one of the more morbid sayings from those days: “The Depression isn’t that bad if you have a job.”

The fact is that the crash of 1929 did not cause the Great Depression – at least, not right away.  The precipitating force triggering the cascading crisis that gripped the world back then was deflation, something that Hoover overlooked – and Roosevelt missed completely.

So – why, then, was FDR elected four times?  Well, in 1932 he was just plain better at campaigning than President Hoover – and people were upset and wanted change.  

In 1940, the storm clouds of war certainly worked in Roosevelt’s favor.  And by 1944, the people were not going to vote a sitting president out of office during a time of war (bearing in mind that an overwhelming number of Americans supported the war effort).

1936, though, is an enigma.  Amity Shlaes suggests that FDR invented a “new kind of interest-group politics.”  Many Americans became part of a movement that “demanded something from government.”   Also, the initiatives developed during Roosevelt’s first term increased federal spending.  For the first time in our nation’s history the national government spent more than all the states combined. 

And 1936 was really the first election year where federally driven entitlements – a persistent challenge ever since – were part of the national experience.   Enter the politics of the trough.

In other words, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was successful because he convinced enough people he was trying to do something for them.  The record shows that he did not really do all that much, but such facts tend to fall short when countered by a compelling narrative.

“Bold, persistent, experimentation,” that’s what Mr. Roosevelt promised on day one of his presidency.  One wonders if anyone could be elected today by saying, in effect, “I will keep making stuff up until something works.”  But FDR was actually that good at politics. 

As an example of FDR’s experimental economic savvy, one day he announced to his staff that he was considering raising the price of an ounce of gold by twenty-one cents.  When someone inquired as to the rational behind that figure the president replied: “because it’s three times seven.  It’s a lucky number.” 

Imagine what Oliver Stone could do with Franklin D. Roosevelt if he gave it a try.