Alter wishes he had my research library. Going to second hand sources like Alter or contemporary bios means one has to believe and trust the biographer. I trust Alter about as far as I could throw him.

Why do you think I mentioned the Commentator? How many folks alive today even remember Scribner's Commentator, much less have them at hand for research?

However, The Commentator was very critical of Roosevelt and is probably the best to see just how many folks really hated Roosevelt. However if one is going research Roosevelts popularity why not go to an actual poll conducted at the time, and don't just take my word for it, I've created a PDF document of the whole poll:

JUNE 1937 FORTUNE POLL ABOUT ROOSEVELT'S POPULARITY

If one's going to do research one has to go to original source material.

Fortune
The American Magazine
Liberty Magazine
Scribner's Commentator
TIME Magazine
etcetera

Some mags were sell-out kiss-ups (like TIME, Hearsts papers, etc.) and were well aware war would sell FAR more NEWSPAPERS and MAGAZINES than anything else could ever do.

The fact that Hearst invited Roosevelt to become dictator does not mean Roosevelt had that right. Just because lots of other folks may have agreed, out of self-interest that Roosevelt had the prerogative doesn't mean he really did.

Heck, you complain when Bush orders the filtering of emails and telephone calls. Roosevelt want the Supreme Court to be a rubber stamp - and the Constitution which they uphold to be so much toilet paper!

That there was as much opposition as there was in those dark days shows just how extreme his proposal was and that sane folks saw "dictator" written on the wall with such an action. And this was from June, 1937 and rushed out as a supplement before the quarterly survey in the next issue because the importance of the matter. People were scared silly - Roosevelt was on a power trip!

Hearst was a snake. He inherited his money and he failed his father in everything his father gave him to do - including his education. His father gave him a San Francisco paper that Hearst's father inherited as the result of an illegal duel (the former owner/publisher killed a man) and Hearst decided he liked telling people what to think. After having been kicked out of college and universally disliked, Hearst particularly liked the idea of power over others minds. Meanwhile he was buying all sorts of old things from all over the world for several decades (1900-1929) and after the depression many of those 'treasures' were sold in auctions during the thirties to cover his debts - at this point he would have sold his soul to the devil himself just to hold on to his possession. He survived the depression with his fortune intact through many questionable dealings.

Yes, Roosevelt was hated consistently by about 35% of the people throughout most of his second and third terms and after his Supreme Court power grab his popularity sunk further. Roosevelt wanted to get us into Europe's war on the side of Britain badly and Britain spent 15 million dollars in propaganda money in the US during 1940 to do so. For 1940 that's A LOT, A LOT of advertising, editorial buying and propaganda money. A full page newspaper ad in those days cost $50.

Like I said earlier, don't take my word for it. Get hold of a political rag like Scribner's Commentator from the mid 1930's on up. Roosevelt was not like Bush who can ignore dissent, Roosevelt had the publisher charged during 1942 for accepting $15,000 for "Japanese Propaganda." The whole story is here on the web from a 25 year old libertarian journal It's a fascinating and important read in understanding how the Roosevelt administration, Henry Luce and others helped railroad war and dissuade and shut down those calling for anti-interventionism.

Having in my possession many Scribner's Commentator issues long prior to WWII (as coined by Luce to imply immediate involvement) they were consistently anti-Roosevelt, anti-intervention and pro-Japan (because Japan was already our biggest trading partner and was the only nation that paid all its debts) and pointed out already many warlike moves made by the US to provoke Japan back in the thrities and that it was apparent Roosevelt was hell-bent for war, probably due to his sagging popularity at this point.

Roosevelt was one of the worst Presidents ever. He ruled like a dictator and his policies, Social Security, have put the US on the verge of fiscal ruin. Worst of all he tried to pass out fish instead of fishing rods and turned a whole generations to a government hand out mentality.

But yeah, I just make it up as I go along.

;-)