John Moser

Yeah, well, he tried and he failed.

And a lot of his popularity simply comes from the fact that the economy was worse at the end of his, far worse than it was at the end of his administration than it was when it started.

But beyond that, the guy was,

There was something unlikable about him as a public figure.

Yes.

He was an engineer and I don't want to cast any shade on engineers, but engineers often are perceived rightly or wrongly as just caring about facts, facts, facts, and statistics.

We're going to go in and we're going to tackle this.

We're going to solve problems, but they're not really good at the human aspect.

So Hoover could go on the radio or give a speech where he says recovery is right around the corner, but he didn't sound convincing.

Mm-hmm.

Franklin Roosevelt, probably his greatest asset is he had lots of what we would today call emotional intelligence.

Mm-hmm.

He could identify what his listeners needed emotionally and could provide that.

Long before Bill Clinton, FDR could say, I feel your pain, and people believed it.

The very worst stage was not long before Election Day 1932 and for roughly the four or five months that followed.

And a big part of the problem was the interregnum.

Today, presidents elected in early November is inaugurated in early to mid-January.

Back then, inauguration wasn't until March.

So there was this December, January, February, March.

So like four months of uncertainty about what was going to follow.