re: the political atmosphere of the 1930s.
...It is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us. But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure.
I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption.
But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis—broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.
Try to imagine those lines coming from Bush, or any modern president, in an economic crisis.
I'm seeing a lot of liberal yelping on the board about the Federal bailouts (often with good reason, IMO.)
But FDR responded to his economic crisis by dropping the Federal government on America and the private sector like a ton of bricks, and he's worshipped as a hero for it. Go figure.