Essay on Roosevelt Campaign

The Roosevelt campaign was exemplary and full of dynamism and imagination in finding ways to reach the largest possible number of voters, in contrast to the Republican leader, still president Herbert Hoover, terribly worn and hated by the people as consequence of the Great Depression. The elections, held on November 8, 1932, were a resounding success for Roosevelt, who got about twenty-three million votes, fifteen million achieved by his rival, Herbert Hoover.

Another reason for choosing Roosevelt is the performance of Hoover during his Presidential tenure from 1929-1933. After being sworn in, on March 4, 1929, the initial euphoria of Hoover and his government team disappeared almost completely as a result of the tremendous drubbing loomed with the Wall Street crash, which occurred on October 29, 1929; his name was forever associated with the Great Depression. The stock market collapse plunged the country into total bankruptcy, hunger, and the work stoppage. His insistence on the worst moments of the crisis that prosperity was just around the corner and it was necessary extreme fiscal prudence made his reputation plummet. Endeavoring to a recovery that never came and trying to maintain the same levels of previous consumption, Hoover asked the businessmen that do not cut wages, as was usual practice in such cases, a policy which had some initial success but, eventually, ended it further worsening the crisis as production declined to alarming levels, increased unemployment and wages ended up falling to lows never before achieved, to leave the working population in conditions of real misery.

Hoover went on to become the target of all the criticism, because of their loss of prestige and popularity after the worsening of the Great Depression, affronted by his coldness, especially for the most disadvantaged class by the crisis, the worker. He presented himself for re-election in the year 1932 but sensing that their chances were slim to rival the Democratic Party, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Hoover developed its campaign in adverse conditions: with open hostility of the press, large-scale boos in his speeches, and massive protests that received in small towns.

The immediate and decisive difference between Hoover and Roosevelt was not ideological but of personality. Roosevelt had a friendly and expressive character with serious efforts to solve the specific problems of depression and also improve economic opportunities and potential living standards of the middle and working classes. He was not intended to be an expert in anything; gee began by saying he was going to try and use different methods to give results. He had a Hollywood star smile and a great sense of humor that animated his radio and prevented explanations seem condescending.