New MSNBC Host: Obama’s No Roosevelt – FDR Had Strong Economic Record to Run On
Somebody better tell incoming MSNBC host Chris Hayes the network giving him his own show later this month doesn't cotton to commentators disrespecting President Obama. On Thursday's “The Last Word,” Hayes told host Lawrence O'Donnell the current White House resident can't run his reelection campaign like Franklin Delano Roosevelt did in 1936 because FDR actually had a strong economic record to boast about (video follows with transcript and commentary): LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: And with “Time” magazine reporting today that the White House is eyeing a campaign like Reagan’s in 1984 or FDR’s in 1936, Republican world is already working on its rebuttal. “Weekly Standard” founder Bill Kristol blogged today in reaction to the “Time” magazine reporting, “When Barack Obama took over, unemployment stood at 7.8 percent. It’s now 9.1 percent, and GDP growth under Obama has so far been running at about 1 percent a year. The bottom line, Obama’s economic record is unlikely to look anything like that of Roosevelt’s or Reagan’s. But if the analogy provided a lift for the Obama team, that’s great. They undoubtedly need a little cheering up. The rest of us can look forward to being cheered up in November 2012 by the change in the Oval Office we’ve been waiting for.” Joining me now is Chris Hayes, MSNBC political analyst and editor at large for “The Nation.” His new weekend show premieres here on MSNBC later this fall. Thanks for joining me tonight, Chris. CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Thank you, Lawrence. Great to be here. O'DONNNELL: Chris, I now have a new favorite FDR tape, which we have already played once in the show. HAYES: I love it. O’DONNELL: I love it so much. I really want to see it again. This is FDR — a warning, warning against electing Republicans, and doing it with a kind of charm, with this smile, with this attitude, that I hadn’t seen before in the limited amount of FDR speaking stuff that I’ve seen. Let’s just watch it and glory in it once again.
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on September 2, 2011. Filed under