re: #337 Jay C

I think Herbert Hoover’s reputation as the efficient, “get-er-done!” Great Engineer was what finally did him in, politically (President was actually his only elected office). I think the public expected a lot more from him, even if stuff like European famine relief, or the Mississippi Flood relief efforts in 1927 were worlds different from the general collapse of the national(/world) economy in the early 30s. As I recall, though: by 1932, Hoover had come (if somewhat belatedly) to the stark realization that federal action WAS vitally necessary: but that he was continually stymied by other Republicans in his Administration, and a Republican Congress - most of whom assumed the best way to deal with the Great Depression was to just ignore it and let it turn around on its own. Hoover basically responded by withdrawing into his shell: I think you’re right: needing a “higher floor”, Hoover went and hid in the basement.

I think Hoover was one of the better men of that era. Though his flood relief actually was the beginning of the end of the Republicans having the African American vote. I think he just didn’t have the right stuff for the presidency and he was stuck in old ways. FDR to his credit was willing to try new things.