Ramesh – I think Barone’s column is excellent and he makes a great point. Conservatives have done yeoman work dismantling some of the myths about Roosevelt’s economic successes but we’ve heard remarkably little — until now — how Roosevelt’s political successes weren’t as enormous and/or benign as some think (though they were undoubtedly very significant). The Republicans in 1948 ran on the slogan “Had enough?” and would have won the presidency if Truman hadn’t run one of the nastiest political campaigns in modern history (there’s a great GOP ad on the “had enough?” theme that I’ve scoured Youtube for and just can’t find).

My one objection to Barone’s column is that he credits the argument that it was WWII alone that brought us out of the Depression. Obviously, there’s real merit to that position. But there’s also a strong argument that real economic prosperity was the result not so much of the war economy, but of the post WWII boom and the immense trade (on favorable terms) we enjoyed with Europe. All of those flattened countries wanted to buy our stuff because, in part, they couldn’t make it themselves. There were other factors as well, of course. Pent-up domestic demand after all the rationing was a big part of the equation as well (and explains the “had enough?” theme as well).

Correction: The “Had enough?” slogan was first unveiled in 1946. I’m still looking for that ad, though.