Comments on: Joe Biden’s “Roosevelt on TV” lie

By: russianspy1234

russianspy1234 — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 07:06:01 +0000

Yeah this isn’t a lie, its a mistake.

By: DWA

DWA — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 05:32:02 +0000

It’s really a stretch to call this a lie. Obviously Biden misspoke. He never mentioned the actual date of 1929, and he was clearly referring to the economic crisis that followed the crash and lasted for years. I guess I think of a lie as deliberately saying something that you know to be untrue to mislead. That doesn’t appear to be the case here.

By: Peter Ravn Rasmussen

Peter Ravn Rasmussen — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 14:35:11 +0000

Actually, I believe Biden simply misspoke — it seems obvious that he was referring to Roosevelt’s famous “fireside chats” (see http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/firesi90.html) on radio.

In fact, these “fireside chats” were a fairly innovative use of the radio medium to create an image of familiarity and intimacy with the president in the minds of the public — a technique later used to great effect by JFK in the television medium.

I’m willing to give Biden the benefit of the doubt, and accept that he simply conflated the two presidents’ similar use of broadcast media (FDR with radio and JFK with television). It would be an easy (and trivial) error to make.

Disclaimer: I am not an American, and I am not affiliated with any U.S. political parties, but I do have a dirty little secret: I am an historian. I teach this stuff, God help me.

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:56:28 +0000

If this is the sort of nitpicky stuff (not platform related in the slightest) that the Dem’s are being called out on as “lies” - so be it. Renaud is right - his history is off but his main point is dead on and not a lie.

By: Renaud

Renaud — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 04:04:05 +0000

I agree with Eric. The point is that past Presidents would talk to Americans to explain issues and what they want to do to fix them and Bush has not done this. He made errors in history, but his central point is not a lie.

By: eric

eric — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 20:18:34 +0000

FDR wasn’t president during the actual crash, but he was president during the much longer and more devastating banking liquidity crisis that caused the crash and followed for years after. FDR also did get on the radio many times explaining what happened and what he was doing to fix it.

This is a just gaffe like McCain’s “hot bottled water” or Obama’s “57 states”.