A vigorous-looking Franklin D. Roosevelt campaigns for the
presidency in 1932. His vice-presidential running mate, John N.
Garner, and the conveniently placed post allowed the handicapped
candidate to stand when greeting voters along the way.
The Election of 1932 681Republican rule, probably ensured a Democratic vic-
tory in any case, but his attitude as the election neared
alienated many voters and turned defeat into rout.
Confident of victory, the Democrats chose
Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt of New York
as their presidential candidate. Roosevelt owed his
nomination chiefly to his success as governor.
Under his administration, New York had led the
nation in providing relief for the needy and had
enacted an impressive program of old-age pensions,
unemployment insurance, and conservation and
public power projects. In 1928, while Hoover was
carrying New York against Smith by a wide margin,
Roosevelt won election by 25,000 votes. In 1930
he swept the state by a 700,000-vote majority, dou-
ble the previous record. He also had the advantage
of the Roosevelt name (he was a distant cousin of
the inimitable TR), and his sunny, magnetic person-
ality contrasted favorably with that of the glum and
colorless Hoover.
Roosevelt was far from being a radical. Although
he had supported the League of Nations while cam-
paigning for the vice presidency in 1920, during the
1920s he had not seriously challenged the basic tenets
of Coolidge prosperity. He never had much difficulty
adjusting his views to prevailing attitudes. For a time
he even served as head of the American Construction
Council, a trade association. Indeed, his life before
the Depression gave little indication that he under-
stood the aspirations of ordinary people or had any
deep commitment to social reform.
Roosevelt was born to wealth and social status
in Dutchess County, New York, in 1882. Pampered
in childhood by a doting yet domineering mother,
he was educated at the exclusive Groton School and
then at Harvard. Ambition as much as the desire to
render public service motivated his career in poli-
tics; even after an attack of polio in 1921 had badly
crippled both his legs, he refused to abandon his
hopes for high office. During the 1920s he was a
hardworking member of the liberal wing of his
party. He supported Smith for president in 1924
and 1928.
To some observers Roosevelt seemed rather a
lightweight intellectually. When he ran for the vice
presidency, the Chicago Tribunecommented,“If he is
Theodore Roosevelt, Elihu Root is Gene Debs, and
Bryan is a brewer.” Twelve years later many critics
judged him too irresolute, too amiable, too eager to1928Hoover (Republican)
Smith (Democrat)
The Roosevelt Political Revolution, 1932In 1928, Hoover carried every state apart from the Deep South and Massachusetts; but in 1932,
Franklin Roosevelt swept to a landslide victory.1932Roosevelt (Democrat)
Hoover (Republican)