re: #78 Hecuba’s daughter

Hoover was a good man who erred in the response to the economic catastrophe he was facing. He saved millions from starvation in Russia; he was a real hero. There is no comparison between Hoover and Trump.

re: #80 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

exactly. he was a tried-and-true public servant, but his ideas and methods of dealing with the crisis were outdated and ineffective.

Also: by most objective historical analysis, Hoover DID eventually come to grasp the dimensions of the Great Depression, and realize what had to be done to (at least try) to ameliorate it, but found himself a prisoner of:
1) a non-interventionist laissez-faire mentality that he could neither totally junk or adequately side-step, and (more importantly)
2) a Republican-dominated Congress that studiously and determinedly attempted to ignore or minimize the economic crisis swallowing up the country, and flatly rejected Hoover’s (or anyone else’s) proposals for government action to try to help the nation out.
3) the incredible bad press from siccing Regular troops on the Bonus Army in the summer of 1932.

Of course, Hoover’s post-Presidential career wasn’t helped by the fact that he became a near-fanatical opponent of Roosevelt and the New Deal, and cemented his reputation as a bitter old reactionary.