Franklin D. Roosevelt Before a US President

Governor Franklin D Roosevelt elected as President

With Franklin Roosevelt 's election came a profound shift in power and a transformation of our government. Because - of the two men who traded office in 1932, perhaps no two men were more different.

The departure of Herbert Hoover

At the beginning of that year, the man who still sat in the Oval Office was Herbert Hoover- a Quaker who personified the protestant work ethic, who strongly opposed government aid to the poor and unemployed, a man with rigid and moralistic ideas, who responded to a veterans' bond march on Washington by sending in Generals MacArthur and Patton to fire on the crowds.

The son of a blacksmith, and a former mining engineer, it was Herbert Hoover's fate to be the president everyone blamed for the Depression. Perhaps no man left this esteemed office in more disgrace, with the possible exception of Richard Nixon.

• Newspapers the destitute huddled in for warmth were called Hoover blankets;
• Broken down cars being towed off the streets were called Hoover wagons;
• An empty pocket turned inside out was called a Hoover flag; and
• the shanty towns that housed the homeless were called Hoovervilles.

Eisenhower liked to tell the story of how a little boy once approached Hoover for an autograph. The president happily obliged him but as he was writing his name, the boy asked him if he could have a second autograph as well. "Why?" asked Hoover. Because, explained the boy, "It takes two of yours in trade to get one of Babe Ruth's."

Franklin D. Roosevelt 's presidential campaign

Campaigning, Franklin Roosevelt pledged himself to helping the average American, whom he called "the forgotten man." He promised a "New Deal" for the American people, saying:

"Let us all here assembled constitute ourselves prophets of a new order of competence and courage; this is more than a political campaign. It is a call to arms."

Franklin D. Roosevelt won the presidential election

Americans heeded the call. Franklin Roosevelt defeated Hoover, in a Democratic landslide. Franklin D. Roosevelt carried every state but six. He won 472 electoral votes to Hoover's 59. It was the greatest Democratic victory in over eighty years. And ahead was one of the greatest challenges any President, Democrat or Republican, had ever faced.