We needed a Roosevelt. We got Neville Chamberlain

[n2doc]

“We should seek by all means in our power to avoid war, by analyzing possible causes, by trying to remove them, by discussion in a spirit of collaboration and good will. I cannot believe that such a program would be rejected by the people of this country, even if it does mean the establishment of personal contact with the dictators.”- N. Chamberlain

[FormerDittoHead]

1. ...and we're Poland. n/t

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Hey! Hoover wants some credit too!

"The sole function of Government is to bring about a condition of affairs favorable to the beneficial development of private enterprise."
- Herbert Hoover

[femrap]

9. Yes, I'm more inclined to see

Herbert Hoover spitting upon the elderly, the unemployed, the working poor. Obama and W have decimated The Former Middle Class.

[white_wolf]

10. I don't know about that. While Hoover is known for the Great Depression

he seemed to be a compassionate, though incompetent man. After all he did send food to Russia during the famine.

[femrap]

12. Remember

The Hoovervilles? And how the villages were destroyed?

Hoover was an engineer by trade...I saw him as extremely unsympathetic to people in the US.

We are in the Greater Depression and living The Decline of the American Empire.

I wonder what Russia gave us in return for the food? Hoover is considered one of the worst presidents in this nation's history.

I guess my generation will never have its own 'FDR.' The Republic is pretty much shattered.

[texanwitch]

3. Where is the picture of Chamberlain coming out of the plane waving his little piece of paper.

There is only one way of dealing with bullies, fight back.

You never back down.

[Ikonoklast]

4. Chamberlain knew war was coming.

He also knew that the vast majority of the English people were dead set against another European war.

What he did was buy time, and in doing so, just may have saved Britain.

[RaleighNCDUer]

14. Nonsense.

At the time that Germany rolled into Czechoslovakia they had NOTHING for an army. It wasn't until they took control of the Czech armaments industry (which mines and factories they got control of after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire) that Germany was able to crank up a real war machine.

If Chamberlain had stood with the Czechs, Poles, and French in 36 (as they were all BEGGING him to do) Hitler would have been forced to back down - he was playing a bluff that he could not back up.

(edited for spell czech)

[Ikonoklast]

15. Chamberlain also thought the Czechs, who had a competent professional army,

would repel Germany.

There wasn't the political or popular support in England to face another continental war, being dragged into conflict by her allies.


Hindsight, and all that, as far as it goes in regards to calling Hitler's bluff...Chamberlain was buying time.

[RaleighNCDUer]

18. That makes no sense - 'Chamberlain also though the Czechs, who

had a competent professional army, would repel Germany' AFTER he made it clear that he accepted the idea of the Germans having a right to the Sudatenland and that Czechoslovakia could not expect any help from any of its allies. Then, when Germany took control of the entire country, instead of 'just' the Sudatenland - well, nobody could see THAT coming. And you will note, he subsequent occupation of all of Czechoslavakia was supposed to trigger the treaty agreements to defend Czechoslovakia - what it triggered was a strongly worded telegram.

Germany had an army that was just big enough to move into Czechoslovakia. Had Hitler been told, in no uncertain terms, that moving that army into the Sudatenland would cause England, France and Poland to cross Germany's borders, he'd HAVE to back down, because they could not have defended against even the most meager expeditionary force.

Chamberlain never made the claim that he was 'buying time'. He claimed 'peace in our time'. He folded before the bluff; he compromised with someone who used compromise only as a means of conquest; he accepted the validity of the other side's argument as a basis for HIS decisions.

Appeasement NEVER rewards the appeaser.

[Morning Dew]

5. We got Barney Fife

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQcNEGrjn1M&feature=related

[Warren Stupidity]

6. you misspelled "Churchill". nt.

[jpak]

7. Sorry, we got Joshua Chamberlain and the Teabaggers got shit at this Little Round Top

yup

[INdemo]

8. Didn't you think when he was campaigning talking about jobs

rebuilding our infrastructure,(a modern day New Deal),making the wealthy pay their fair share.etc...Didn't you think that he sounded a little like Roosevelt. And we thought we were getting a new era Roosevelt...As it turns out he is worse than George W. Bush.
..But as for Neville Chamberlain..He operates on the same principal..He says one thing to the people and does the complete opposite.

[dbt]

11. We needed John Shaft.

We got Steve Urkel.

[Romulox]

13. We needed Roosevelt. We got "John Galt". nt

[eridani]

20. Actually, we did get Roosevelt. Unfortunately it is the Roosevelt of 1937

Listening to the austerity assholes and crashing the economy again until the start of the war.

[bluestate10]

16. You should study FDR's policy history, ALL OF IT, before posting again.

People selectively pick out the handful of best FDR policies, and ignore the truckload of stinkers. Every President in history has one or two signature accomplishments, FDR was no exception. I am one that think history will look kindly on President Obama and DU posters 70 years into the future will be singing praises of policies that the current strain decry.

[amborin]

17. from the get-go, starting w/ caving to rethugs re: the stimulus & getting 0 votes for wasting a chun

k of it on useless tax cuts

then the PO, etc................

[Hatchling]

19. We needed Iron Man, we got the TinMan