"Roosevelt with a suntan"

[kpete]

"Roosevelt with a suntan"
by David Kroning
Wed Oct 01, 2008 at 05:39:41 PM PDT

I would like to take a few minutes to introduce you all to someone very special in my life. This guy pictured below is Harold. Harold is my grandfather. He'll be 89 years old this year. His father was a farmer in Northeast Ohio, and he worked his entire life at the Hoover Vacuum Cleaner Factory in Canton, Ohio, which has now closed its doors and moved to Mexico.



He knows very well the voice that inspired his generation to turn their backs to fear. The voice that brought them together as a nation to overcome the century's most challenging crises. He told me that the same voice comes out of Barack Obama. For him, Barack Obama is nothing less than "F.D.R. with a suntan."

Recently, someone here on this site responded to a request to send a home-made magnet of the Obama symbol to him. In return, he sent me this photograph, and a small letter that is addressed to "your friends on the computer." (That would be you all). My grandfather is big on "thank you's" so I must share the important parts of his letter with you. I would scan it, but the writing is a bit scratchy, so I'll transcribe it for you.

Dear __,

I sure miss you. I wish you would call and visit more often. I know you live far away and you work hard at the school. Boy oh boy, I'm sure proud of you. My garden is nice this year. I got beans and corn and squash, but the strawberries didn't do well. The little ones stepped all over them, but they grow fast!

<...>

I want to tell you that all the old people around here sure do like my hat. Grandma is jealous that it's attracting the ladies. Ha! You tell that nice girl thank you for the magnet. I put it right up on the frigerator. Boy, things sure are bad around here. We have to change things. All the factories are closed and all the jobs are gone. You did right to leave. Your dad came by the other day to ask me to go see Joe Biden at the Hall of Fame, but it was too early in the morning for me. I have to help grandma wash. I got two signs. I'm gonna put one up in my yard and the other in Ruth's yard . I'll ask your mom to take a picture.

Tell your friends that we're gonna win this time. You tell em' that the old people are with em'! When things get rough in America we always work together, all the people--the white ones and the black ones and young ones and the old ones...its the only way it works. There's always somethin' good growing out of something bad! Like my strawberries in the cow manure! Hope for the best! .

Come and suprise us with a visit soon,

Grandpa M.

more at:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/1/192746/927/263/617058

[liberalmuse]

1. I want everyone here to send this dear old man a postcard!

Please! What a sweetie!

[Captain Hilts]

2. FDR had a progressive track record as Gov. of NY. Obama does not.

We'll have to wait and see on that.

However, FDR ditched some long-held beliefs - about the US participation in the World Court and the League of Nations - just to get elected. Half his staff and Eleanor refused to speak to him today because of his sell-out to William R. Hearst. Obama took similar turns to the right after securing the nomination.

[FrenchieCat]

3. Till then.

Don't tell us what Obama will do. You do not know.

[Frances]

5. If Obama governs from the center

it will seem like he's governing from the left because the Repubs moved the country so far to the right

I don't mind some compromises as long as the big picture is a good one

No voter will be pleased by every decision ANY president makes

[Captain Hilts]

6. Going into the presidency he does not have the progressive track record FDR had. It's that simple.

He very well could turn out to be progressive, in part, because he will have a Democratic Congress.

But a guy who consults Jim Cooper and Sam Nunn on domestic politics, Colin Powell on foreign affairs is a good politician, but not a progressive. Progressives wouldn't have supported the FISA bill and progressives would not support continuation of the embargo on Cuba and would have supported the DC gun ban. Obama has taken non-progressive stances on these issues.

He could be a progressive president. We just don't know yet.

[Davis_X_Machina]

9. Roosevelt...

...ran in '32 on a platform of retrenchment, reduced federal expenditures, balanced budgets and fiscal prudence.

Roosevelt wasn't 'Roosevelt' until after he was elected, inaugurated, and got a look at the mess from the inside.

[Captain Hilts]

12. His track record as governor was VERY progressive. Things like the CCC and WPA...

and WIC had been tried at the state level, actually.

Yes, he ran for office as a conservative - as Sen. Obama does now at times - and I've been quick to note that FDR did the same thing. But, again, Obama does not have a progressive track record as FDR had.

[FrenchieCat]

4. I like that....."FDR with a tan"!

[The Traveler]

7. Obama is progressive

But, like Roosevelt, at some point he will have to look at progressives like us and say something like "I agree with you. Now, you get out there and you MAKE me do it." (A paraphrase of a discussion between Roosevelt and labor leaders.)

Folks, even after an Obama victory, there is a lot of work before us progressive types. Obama is practical ... he knows we are ten miles into the dark woods of corporatism, and that we won't get out with a half mile hike.

I believe Obama's election is within our grasp ... but in a real sense, that victory only signals the beginning of the real struggle before us.

Trav

[jkshaw]

8. kpete, your grandfather looks like a wonderful man!

And not anywhere near 89 years old! More like 69. Thank you for the picture, and for sharing your story about him.

[BlooInBloo]

10. :)))))))))

[Barack_America]

11. Aww, I need to call my grandpa...

I've still got to swing him over to Obama. He's a lifelong Republican who hates Bush and is not impressed with McCain. All that's left to do is convince him that it really is okay to vote for a Democrat.

[TornadoTN]

13. Here's a story about my grandparents and this election

I hate to say it, but my grandmother is a fundamentalist Christian (The apple does drop far from the tree, at least in my case) and tends to be so narrowly focused on specific issues in politics that its disturbing. But she called me the next day after the debate, knowing that I'm a huge Obama supporter, and told me that she was impressed by Obama and ashamed of McCain and then told me "how can he say he's a leader when he can't even give the other side any kind of respect, I'm just ashamed."

She won't vote Obama, although I'm still working on it. At this point, she's staying at home. My grandfather, a life-long Democrat, just smiles and keeps his opinions to himself. But one Sunday afternoon after lunch, he took me aside and pulled something out of his pocket. He showed me without saying a word - it was an Obama lapel pin and he grinned from ear to ear.

[mscuedawg]

14. Wonderful story...thank you for sharing!!!

My grandparents (Nanny and Poppy) on my mom's side are both passed....but during the primaries I really wished I had them here. They were DIEHARD DEMS and also very religious...Poppy was born in the south...Nanny was a stay at home mom who believed the woman's place was in the home...they were born in the early 1920s...they experienced the depression and WWII....I would have given anything to have had a few moments with them...to see who they would have voted for btwn Obama and Clinton... In my heart, I believe they would have chosen Obama...they raised me telling me about JFK and FDR (even had his unfinished portrait in their living room)...and as I sat there listening to Obama's acceptance speech in the DNC...my thoughts went to Nanny and Poppy and I think they would be really proud to support him...