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The Many Loves of FDR

December 6, 2012 @ 12:36 pm

The new movie HYDE PARK ON HUDSON, with Bill Murray playing Franklin Roosevelt, is a flawed, frustrating melodrama but it raises important questions about historical perspective.

The movie dramatizes a 1939 visit by Britain's King and Queen to FDR's country estate while the wheelchair-bound president juggled demands of his wife, mother, and two adoring mistresses. Laura Linney plays a fifth cousin of the president who, according to many historians, became one of his several lovers during his last years. The film shows Roosevelt's callous treatment of these women and raises uncomfortable questions: how did he hide his caddish behavior while he was alive, and why do hero-worshiping history books mostly ignore his shortcomings?

As with President Kennedy, most chroniclers will overlook or obscure even the most irresponsible, contemptible conduct if it's perpetrated by a dashing liberal leader.

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  • halfshaft wrote...
    Michael, Michael, Michael.......
    December 6, 2012 12:00 pm
    ....it's a generally accepted fact by almost any historian of politics and/or journalism that in the days of FDR and even Kennedy, the media was far less interested in a President's personal shortcomings and more apt to turn a blind eye to indiscretions. And the book shelves today are loaded with books that detail all Presidents less-than-respectable behavior. Case in point: "A Question of Character", a very critical examination of JFK's many flaws, almost all of which were never reported on my the media of his day. (the author slips my mind right now0.
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  • messiah101 wrote...
    When I was doing in home sales
    December 6, 2012 3:01 pm
    I saw photos of BOTH FDR and JFK on peoples walls but never spotted a photo of a GOP POTUS perhaps its because people felt FDR and JFK were in their corner and because of that they let defects in their character slide.Medved if you went back to those FDR days you would see the world through different eyes the relationship between man and women was much different then it is today.Even during the 50s wife beating was commonplace Even on the popular Jackie Gleason show Jackie threatened his wife with "One of these days Alice one of these days,POW ,right in the kisser.No one viewing got upset by this.Now lets hear about Dwight D Eisenhower's affair with his driver.Oh sorry I forgot he was a GOPer so hands off RIGHT Medved?
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  • ron prevost wrote...
    And just where were you selling, messiah?
    December 7, 2012 1:35 am
    Either that, or you're a lot older than my 66 years. .... Ronald Reagan has achieved that picture/hero status in at least a few homes I've appraised - mostly remembering the crop of lesser presidents since 1989.

    But perception and reality can be different things. ... I'm sure (and I've seen) home pictures of Obama, but I've yet to see him do anything except promise, promise, promise.

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  • messiah101 wrote...
    Ron P
    December 7, 2012 11:14 am
    Your post got me to thinking,I do remember seeing a photo of Nixon as well as Reagan but they were on the walls of Business owners offices and were of the owner shaking hands with Ronnie and Dick (probably after receiving a large contribution but thats just a guess it could be because they were just good Buds)
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  • ron prevost wrote...
    Probably half right, messiah
    December 7, 2012 1:34 pm
    Nixon was always about the money. ... But Reagan was more apt to just chat with you if he felt like it.

    I remember meeting him and Nancy (she really IS nice, BTW)in 1977 after a Lincoln Day dinner and we just chatted for half an hour. ... never did think to ask for a picture or whatever.

    NOW, if I could ever find a baseball (or football - for the Gipper) autographed by Ronald Reagan, I'd be in Heaven.

    .

    HEY, does anyone out there know where I could find such a thing ?

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  • messiah101 wrote...
    Ron P
    December 7, 2012 4:07 pm
    Not that I don't believe you but are Lincoln Day Dinners held by non government folks common with you GOPers?Or was it simply a fund raiser with Lincoln Day being used as a reason?
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  • ron prevost wrote...
    Lincoln Day dinners used to be held on Lincoln's birthday.
    December 7, 2012 5:41 pm
    I supposed you could call them fund raisers, but at $50 a plate - even in 1977 - that's not much of a fund raiser. .. More of a 'thank you' for 1976 leg work. ..... Sure, the high rollers probable paid a lot more, but I doubt any of them had a 30 minute private chat.

    But, messiah, for the most part I stopped politics in the mid 1980s. And IF you've actually been paying attention instead of pigeon-holing people, there ate a lot of things I don't follow a party line on. .. YOU should try that sometime - actually thinking for yourself.

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  • messiah101 wrote...
    Ron P
    December 8, 2012 8:24 am
    And if read my posts directed at you no one could say I pidgeon holed you.I would say on a 1-100 scale with 100 being a Far Righty Loon,I would give you a 65.Bill Clinton gets a 55 and Obama a 50,I give myself a 35,I'm tied with Adlai Stevenson
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  • ron prevost wrote...
    Thanks, actually., messiah. At this stage in life I'd give myself a 65, too.
    December 9, 2012 2:37 am
    But Obama is MUCH further to the left than you perceive. And Srevenson would only be that liberal judged for the 1950s. Given his party at his times, it is doubtful that - were he then president - that he would have sent federal troops to Little Rock, as Ike did.
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  • messiah101 wrote...
    Your correct
    December 7, 2012 9:46 am
    FDR because of his physical condition was actually carried to his car by his staff (in front of the press)but the cameras did not roll until FDR was seated and smiling.
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  • TheSymbolForBoron wrote...
    Medved's incredibly versitile reviewing style...
    December 6, 2012 3:12 pm
    (Movie Name) is a flawed (blah, blah, blah). How many reviews have you started like that?

    OK, here's my book review of Michael Medved's book, "The Odds Against Obama: Why History and Logic Make the President a Likely Loser."

    It's flawed.

    (Nice picture AJ. Just you and the mirror. What a surprise.)

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  • Frogsplash wrote...
    And Sally Hemings
    December 6, 2012 9:42 pm
    Has been buried by historians as well. You never hear much about it when you read on Jefferson. Washington is purported to have many mistresses as well. How about Kay Summersby? You never hear about her when you read on Eisenhower. It's not a "liberal" thing Michael.
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  • ron prevost wrote...
    Sally Hemings is far from forgotten.
    December 7, 2012 1:42 am
    Desendents each year of her and TJ (or his younger brother?) gather in family reunions. ... But remember that Sally and Tom's dead wife had the same father. .. Still a slave, but his late wife's sister.
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  • fartforce1 wrote...
    medved, I feel sorry for you.
    December 11, 2012 9:51 am
    You are spending that whole life of yours bothered by Liberals. Not even dead ones can give you peace. Lincons was gay and had a liv in boyfreind for years, but I am not bothered when people dont mention that every time his name is mentioned. Why do hate people so much?
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