Status Updates From Freedom from Fear: The Amer...

Need to finally finish this!

"The fact is," Moley conceded, "that I found it impossible to discover how deeply Roosevelt was impressed with the seriousness of the crisis." While Moley and Treasury Secretary fretted over the accumulating reports of gold withdrawals and bank closings, Roosevelt remained serenely unperturbed, a monument of inscrutability, exuding "nothing but the most complete confidence in his own ability to deal the any situation

Hoover forged his policies in the tidy, efficient smithy of his own highly disciplined mind. Once he had cast them in final form, he could be obstinate...Roosevelt's mind, by contrast, was a spacious, cluttered warehouse, a teeming curiosity shop continuously restocked with randomly acquired intellectual oddments. He was open to all number and manner of impressions, facts, theories, nostrums, and personalities.

Even his closest advisers at this time,...marveled at Roosevelt's capacity for what Tugwell called "almost impenetrable concealment of intention."...His features were utterly responsive to his will, finely molding themselves to his constantly shifting purposes of persuasion, negotiation, or obfuscation, never ceasing to charm but never opening fully to reveal the soul within.

Both sides were stepping a dangerous political dance around the gathering economic crisis. Hoover seemed more interested in vindicating himself in the historical record than in genuinely enlisting his successor in helpful policies. Roosevelt "either did not realize how serious the situation was or . . . preferred to have conditions deteriorate and gain for himself the entire credit for the rescue operation."

"The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it: If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt
speech at Oglethorpe University, May 22, 1932