History UsefulNotes / FranklinDRoosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials of FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States. The tenth president from the Democratic Party, he was also the longest-tenured president in American history, serving three full terms and being just over a month into a fourth at the time of his death. Roosevelt was president from [[TheThirties 1933]] to [[TheForties 1945]], succeeding UsefulNotes/HerbertHoover, and was followed by his Vice President, UsefulNotes/HarrySTruman, who completed FDR's fourth term after his death in office. No prior president had even won a third term, and no president since has challenged--or will be ''able'' to challenge, thanks to the 22nd Amendment--his length of service (barring the ''very'' unlikely event of said amendment being repealed).

* Like most other politicians (and some that aren't even politicians) of the time-period, Roosevelt is a possible (and indeed, the default) Head of State for the USA in ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIronII''.

Roosevelt is, to date, the only physically-disabled President.[[note]](though UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy was nearly there, having a hormonal disorder called Addison's disease, likely caused by an underlying lifelong autoimmune disorder, that left him weak, and a debilitating back injury that he got playing football in college and then exacerbated in the Navy). While FDR was susceptible to a lot of illnesses, likely including his paralytic one, due to being an isolated only child, ''pre''-paralysis he was far healthier than JFK, who'd had numerous hospitalizations and brushes with death by about the same age. Kennedy also took scrupulous care to hide his medical issues from the public, projecting an image of health and "vigor". The "bad back" was about all he admitted.[[/note]] In the summer of 1921, he became gravely ill a few weeks after he took his sons to the annual Boy Scout jamboree. After a day spent outside with his kids, he began to feel unwell late in the afternoon. He told his family he was headed to bed without supper and was never the same again. At the time he was diagnosed with polio, but he is now believed to have had [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt%27s_paralytic_illness Guillain–Barré syndrome]], due to his symptoms and the circumstances in which he got them. It took him until the end of the year to recover from the illness, and he remained permanently paralyzed from the waist down. He did his best to keep the extent of his malady secret from the public, insisting on being photographed from the waist up (to hide his wheelchair), standing with the surreptitious assistance of aides at public functions, and utilizing his truly impressive upper-body strength to hold himself upright at podiums. He was even able to walk short distances, through the use of leg braces and canes.[[note]]He'd also occasionally stand between aides and use them and his own strength to hold himself up while swinging his hips to move his legs and give the impression that he was walking under his own power.[[/note]] In spite of his FeignedHealthiness, most of the public knew of his struggles with polio. In the 1932 campaign it greatly helped humanize him to the public, seeing his suffering with polio as akin to their own suffering in the Depression.

Roosevelt is, to date, the only physically-disabled President.[[note]](though UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy was nearly there, having a hormonal disorder called Addison's disease, likely caused by an underlying lifelong autoimmune disorder, that left him weak, and a debilitating back injury that he got playing football in college and then exacerbated in the Navy). While FDR was susceptible to a lot of illnesses, likely including his paralytic one, due to being an isolated only child, ''pre''-paralysis he was far healthier than JFK, who'd had numerous hospitalizations and brushes with death by about the same age. Kennedy also took scrupulous care to hide his medical issues from the public, projecting an image of health and "vigor". The "bad back" was about all he admitted.[[/note]] In the summer of 1921, he became gravely ill a few weeks after he took his sons to the annual Boy Scout jamboree. After a day spent outside with his kids, he began to feel unwell late in the afternoon. He told his family he was headed to bed without supper and was never the same again. At the time he was diagnosed with polio, but he is now believed to have had [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt%27s_paralytic_illness Guillain–Barré syndrome]], due to his symptoms and the circumstances in which he got them. It took him until the end of the year to recover from the illness, and he remained permanently paralyzed from the waist down. He did his best to keep the extent of his malady secret from the public, insisting on being photographed from the waist up (to hide his wheelchair), standing with the surreptitious assistance of aides at public functions, and utilizing his truly impressive upper-body strength to hold himself upright at podiums. He was even able to walk short distances, through the use of leg braces and canes.[[note]]He'd also occasionally stand between aides and use them and his own strength to hold himself up while swinging his hips to move his legs and give the impression that he was walking under his own power.[[/note]] In spite of his FeignedHealthines, most of the public knew of his struggles with polio. In the 1932 campaign it greatly helped humanize him to the public, seeing his suffering with polio as akin to their own suffering in the Depression.

Roosevelt is, to date, the only physically-disabled President.[[note]](though UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy was nearly there, having a hormonal disorder called Addison's disease, likely caused by an underlying lifelong autoimmune disorder, that left him weak, and a debilitating back injury that he got playing football in college and then exacerbated in the Navy). While FDR was susceptible to a lot of illnesses, likely including his paralytic one, due to being an isolated only child, ''pre''-paralysis he was far healthier than JFK, who'd had numerous hospitalizations and brushes with death by about the same age. Kennedy also took scrupulous care to hide his medical issues from the public, projecting an image of health and "vigor". The "bad back" was about all he admitted.[[/note]] In the summer of 1921, he became gravely ill a few weeks after he took his sons to the annual Boy Scout jamboree. After a day spent outside with his kids, he began to feel unwell late in the afternoon. He told his family he was headed to bed without supper and was never the same again. At the time he was diagnosed with polio, but he is now believed to have had [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt%27s_paralytic_illness Guillain–Barré syndrome]], due to his symptoms and the circumstances in which he got them. It took him until the end of the year to recover from the illness, and he remained permanently paralyzed from the waist down. He did his best to keep the extent of his malady secret from the public, insisting on being photographed from the waist up (to hide his wheelchair), standing with the surreptitious assistance of aides at public functions, and utilizing his truly impressive upper-body strength to hold himself upright at podiums. He was even able to walk short distances, through the use of leg braces and canes.[[note]]He'd also occasionally stand between aides and use them and his own strength to hold himself up while swinging his hips to move his legs and give the impression that he was walking under his own power.[[/note]]

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* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E12TheMansionFamily The Mansion Family]]", Mr. Burns is filling out paperwork in a doctor's office and lists his social security number as 000-00-02, then says "damned Roosevelt!" implying that FDR got 000-00-001.[[note]]He did not. It went to one John D. Sweeney, Jr. of New York who happened to have his application processed first out of a stack of thousands.[[/note]]

* Creator/BillMurray played FDR in ''Film/HydeParkOnHudson'', which depicts his affair with his distant cousin, Margaret Stuckley, with the focus being an important weekend where he had King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visit.

Roosevelt led the country through TheGreatDepression and UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and his domestic reforms and foreign policy accomplishments have forever changed the United States. By the end of his life, the USA had become the premier world superpower, a position it maintains to this very day, and his policies--in peace ''and'' war--played no small part in bringing out that transformation. As a liberal, his presidency is credited with starting a shift in American politics, taking the Democratic Party to a more progressive left-wing direction, and in the process beginning a polarization that eventually led to the Republican Party and the Democratic Party taking their modern positions.

Roosevelt led the country through TheGreatDepression and UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and his domestic reforms and foreign policy accomplishments have forever changed the United States. By the end of his life, the United States of America had become the premier world superpower, a position it maintains to this very day, and his policies in peace and war played no small part in bringing out that transformation. As a liberal, his presidency is credited to starting a shift in American politics, taking the Democratic Party to a more progressive left-wing direction, and in the process beginning a polarization that eventually led to the Republican Party and the Democratic Party taking their modern positions.

Roosevelt is, to date, the only physically-disabled President.[[note]](though UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy was nearly there, having a hormonal disorder called Addison's disease, likely caused by an underlying lifelong autoimmune disorder, that left him weak, and a debilitating back injury that he got playing football in college and then exacerbated in the Navy). While FDR was susceptible to a lot of illnesses, likely including his paralytic one, due to being an isolated only child, ''pre''-paralysis he was far healthier than JFK, who'd had numerous hospitalizations and brushes with death by about the same age. Kennedy also took scrupulous care to hide his medical issues from the public, projecting an image of health and "vigor". The "bad back" was about all he admitted.[[/note]] In the summer of 1921, he became gravely ill a few weeks after he took his sons to the annual Boy Scout jamboree. After a day spent outside with his kids, he began to feel unwell late in the afternoon. He told his family he was headed to bed without supper and was never the same again. At the time he was diagnosed with polio, but he is now believed to have had [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt%27s_paralytic_illness Guillain–Barré syndrome]], due to his symptoms and the circumstances in which he got them. It took him until the end of the year to recover from the illness, and he remained permanently paralyzed from the waist down. He did his best to keep the extent of his malady secret from the public, insisting on being photographed from the waist up (to hide his wheelchair), standing with the surreptitious assistance of aides at public functions, and utilizing his truly impressive upper body strength to hold himself upright at podiums. He was even able to walk short distances through the use of leg braces and canes.[[note]]He'd also occasionally stand between aides and use them and his own strength to hold himself up while swinging his hips to move his legs and give the impression that he was walking under his own power.[[/note]]

Roosevelt is, to date, the only physically-disabled President.[[note]](though UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy was nearly there, having a hormonal disorder called Addison's disease, likely caused by an underlying lifelong autoimmune disorder, that left him weak, and a debilitating back injury that he got playing football in college and then exacerbated in the Navy). While FDR was susceptible to a lot of illnesses, likely including his paralytic one, due to being an isolated only child, ''pre''-paralysis he was far healthier than JFK, who'd had numerous hospitalizations and brushes with death by about the same age. Kennedy also took scrupulous care to hide his medical issues from the public, projecting an image of health and "vigor". The "bad back" was about all he admitted.[[/note]] In the summer of 1921, he became gravely ill a few weeks after he took his sons to the annual Boy Scout jamboree. After a day spent outside with his kids, he began to feel unwell late in the afternoon. He told his family he was headed to bed without supper and was never the same again. At the time he was diagnosed with polio, but he now believed to have had [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt%27s_paralytic_illness Guillain–Barré syndrome]], due to his symptoms and the circumstances in which he got them. It took him until the end of the year to recover from the illness, and he remained permanently paralyzed from the waist down. He did his best to keep the extent of his malady secret from the public, insisting on being photographed from the waist up (to hide his wheelchair), standing with the surreptitious assistance of aides at public functions, and utilizing his truly impressive upper body strength to hold himself upright at podiums. He was even able to walk short distances through the use of leg braces and canes.[[note]]He'd also occasionally stand between aides and use them and his own strength to hold himself up while swinging his hips to move his legs and give the impression that he was walking under his own power.[[/note]]

He was also a fierce SlaveToPR, taking good care on how he presented himself to the public, and cultivating friendships with the press corps (who, whether on account of CodeOfHonor or because they bought into his platform, refrained from making his disability into an issue). Nonetheless, the fact that he was wheelchair bound was [[http://ideas.time.com/2013/07/12/the-myth-of-fdrs-secret-disability/ more or less an]] OpenSecret, with more than a few leaks to the public, and yet either because of the scale of TheGreatDepression, the lack of 24/7 News coverage in the pre-television era or his personal popularity, this never quite mattered to either him, the public or his political opponents. In fact, his partial debilitation had silver linings: he was facing serious political scandal about undercover Military Police agents entrapping homosexuals in the Navy through oral sex and no one wanted to then press too hard to a person so seriously ill. More importantly, Franklin developed considerable empathy for people enduring misfortune through no fault of their own (albeit with occasional blindspots[[note]]Such as not supporting Federal anti-lynching bills because he felt there was not enough political support when he had to get broader legislation passed, giving in to wartime racist hysteria and setting up internment for Japanese-Americans and not doing nearly enough to specifically interfere with UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust[[/note]]), a quality which would be sorely needed during the global hardships he would face as president. The fact that his wife, UsefulNotes/{{Eleanor|Roosevelt}}, was a staunch activist for the underdog proved a major influence on him as well, even if his continual philandering with other women was an irritant that permanently cooled their marriage. (Both Roosevelts, by the way, were related to earlier US president UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt; Eleanor as his niece, Franklin as his fifth cousin.)

* Creator/SinclairLewis' dystopian 1935 novel ''Literature/ItCantHappenHere'' has FDR losing the 1936 Democratic nomination to demagogic (fictional) senator Berzelius Windrip, who goes on to win the election and establish a fascist dictatorship in the US.

* Creator/SinclairLewis' dystopian 1935 novel ''Literature/ItCantHappenHere'' has FDR losing the 1936 Democratic nomination to Senator Berzelius Windrip, who goes on to win the election and establish a fascist dictatorship in the US.

* ''FDR: American Badass!" is an... unusual spoof of the man's life. He is infected with polio after being bitten by a Nazi werewolf, and discovers that werewolves are in control of the Axis countries and plotting to take over the world with werewolf blood-infested alcohol. Yep.

* In "When I See an Elephant Fly" from Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}'', one of the puns is "I heard a fireside chat", a then-contemporary reference to Roosevelt's fireside chats.

* Roosevelt appeared in ''YankeeDoodleDandy''.

* Creator/EdwardHerrmann portrayed him in the made-for-TV biopics ''Eleanor and Franklin'' and ''Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years''. He became so well associated with the role he cameo'd in the film version of ''Theatre/{{Annie}}'' as Roosevelt and even narrated some Creator/TheHistoryChannel documentaries about or featuring Roosevelt.

* He appears in the musical ''Theatre/{{Annie}}''.

Roosevelt is, to date, the only physically-disabled President.[[note]](though UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy was nearly there, having a hormonal disorder called Addison's disease, likely caused by an underlying lifelong autoimmune disorder, that left him weak, and a debilitating back injury that he got playing football in college and then exacerbated in the Navy). While FDR was susceptible to a lot of illnesses, likely including his paralytic one, due to being an isolated only child, ''pre''-paralysis he was far healthier than JFK, who'd had numerous hospitalizations and brushes with death by about the same age. Kennedy also took scrupulous care to hide his medical issues from the public, projecting an image of health and "vigor". The "bad back" was about all he admitted.[[/note]] In the summer of 1921, he became gravely ill a few weeks after he took his sons to the annual Boy Scout jamboree. After a day spent outside with his kids, he began to feel unwell late in the afternoon. He told his family he was headed to bed without supper and was never the same again. At the time he was diagnosed with polio, but he now believed to have had [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt%27s_paralytic_illness Guillain–Barré syndrome]], due to his symptoms and the circumstances in which he got them. It took him until the end of the year to recover from the illness, and he remained permanently paralyzed from the waist down. He did his best to keep the extent of his malady secret from the public, insisting on being photographed from the waist up (to hide his wheelchair), standing with the surreptitious assistance of aides at public functions, and using his truly impressive upper body strength to hold himself upright at podiums. He was even able to walk short distances through the use of leg braces and canes.[[note]]He'd also occasionally stand between aides and use them and his own strength to hold himself up while swinging his hips to move his legs and give the impression that he was walking under his own power.[[/note]]

Roosevelt is, to date, the only physically-disabled President.[[note]](though UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy was nearly there, having a hormonal disorder called Addison's disease, likely caused by an underlying lifelong autoimmune disorder, that left him weak, and a debilitating back injury that he got playing football in college and then exacerbated in the Navy). While FDR was susceptible to a lot of illnesses, likely including his paralytic one, due to being an isolated only child, ''pre''-paralysis he was far healthier than JFK, who'd had numerous hospitalizations and brushes with death by about the same age. Kennedy also took scrupulous care to hide his medical issues from the public, projecting an image of health and "vigor". The "bad back" was about all he admitted.[[/note]] In the summer of 1921, he became gravely ill a few weeks after he took his sons to the annual Boy Scout jamboree. After a day spent outside with his kids, he began to feel unwell late in the afternoon. He told his family he was headed to bed without supper and was never the same again. He was diagnosed with polio but is now believed to have had [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt%27s_paralytic_illness Guillain–Barré syndrome]], due to his symptoms and the circumstances in which he got it. It took him until the end of the year to recover, but he remained permanently paralyzed from the waist down. He did his best to keep the extent of his illness secret from the public, insisting on being photographed from the waist up (to hide his wheelchair), standing with the surreptitious assistance of aides at public functions, and using his truly impressive upper body strength to hold himself upright at podiums. He was even able to walk short distances through the use of leg braces and canes.[[note]]He'd also occasionally stand between aides and use them and his own strength to hold himself up while swinging his hips to move his legs and give the impression that he was walking under his own power.[[/note]]

Roosevelt led the country through TheGreatDepression and UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and his domestic reforms and foreign policy accomplishments have forever changed the United States. By the end of his life, the United States of America had become the premier world superpower, a position it maintains to this very day, and his policies in peace and war played no small part in bringing out that transformation. As a liberal, his presidency is credited to starting a shift in American politics, taking the Democratic Party to a more progressive left-wing direction, and in the process beginning a polarization that led to the Republican Party and the Democratic Party taking their modern positions.

Roosevelt is, to date, the only physically-disabled President.[[note]](though UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy was nearly there, having a hormonal disorder called Addison's disease, likely caused by an underlying lifelong autoimmune disorder, that left him weak, and a debilitating back injury that he got playing football in college and then exacerbated in the Navy). While FDR was susceptible to a lot of illnesses, likely including his paralytic one, due to being an isolated only child, ''pre''-paralysis he was far healthier than JFK, who'd had numerous hospitalizations and brushes with death by about the same age. Kennedy also took scrupulous care to hide his medical issues from the public, projecting an image of health and "vigor". The "bad back" was about all he admitted.[[/note]] In the summer of 1921, he became gravely ill a few weeks after he took his sons to the annual Boy Scout jamboree. He was diagnosed with polio but is now believed to have had [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt%27s_paralytic_illness Guillain–Barré syndrome]], due to his symptoms and the circumstances in which he got it. It took him until the end of the year to recover, but he remained permanently paralyzed from the waist down. He did his best to keep the extent of his illness secret from the public, insisting on being photographed from the waist up (to hide his wheelchair), standing with the surreptitious assistance of aides at public functions, and using his truly impressive upper body strength to hold himself upright at podiums. He was even able to walk short distances through the use of leg braces and canes.[[note]]He'd also occasionally stand between aides and use them and his own strength to hold himself up while swinging his hips to move his legs and give the impression that he was walking under his own power.[[/note]]

[[quoteright:345:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fdr-chair1251310553.jpg]]

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials of FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States. The tenth president from the Democratic Party, he was also the longest-tenured president in American history, serving three full terms and being just over a month into a fourth at the time of his death. Roosevelt was president from [[TheThirties 1933]] to [[TheForties 1945]], succeeding UsefulNotes/HerbertHoover and making way for his Vice President, UsefulNotes/HarrySTruman, following his death in office. No other president before him had even won a third term, and no president since has challenged--or will, thanks to the 22nd Amendment, be ''able'' to challenge--his length of service (barring the ''very'' unlikely event of said amendment being repealed).

He was also a fierce SlaveToPR, taking good care on how he presented himself to the public, and cultivating friendships with the press corps (who, whether on account of CodeOfHonor or because they bought into his platform, refrained from making his disability into an issue). Nonetheless, the fact that he was wheelchair bound was [[http://ideas.time.com/2013/07/12/the-myth-of-fdrs-secret-disability/ more or less an]] OpenSecret, with more than a few leaks to the public, and yet either because of the scale of TheGreatDepression, the lack of 24/7 News coverage in the pre-television era or his personal popularity, this never quite mattered to either him, the public or his political opponents. In fact, his partial debilitation had silver linings: he was facing serious political scandal about undercover Military Police agents entrapping homosexuals in the Navy through oral sex and no one wanted to then press too hard to a person so seriously ill. More importantly, Franklin developed considerable empathy for people enduring misfortune through no fault of their own (albeit with occasional blindspots[[note]]Such as not supporting Federal anti-lynching bills because he felt there was not enough political support when he had to get broader legislation passed, giving in to wartime racist hysteria and setting up internment for Japanese-Americans and not doing nearly enough to specifically interfere with UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust[[/note]]), a quality which would be sorely needed during the global hardships he would face as president. The fact that his wife, UsefulNotes/{{Eleanor|Roosevelt}}, was a staunch activist for the underdog proved a major influence on him as well, even if his continual philandering with other women was an irritant that permanently cooled their marriage. (Both Roosevelts, by the way, were related to earlier US president UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt; Eleanor as his niece, Franklin more distantly as his fifth cousin.)

He was also a fierce SlaveToPR, taking good care on how he presented himself to the public, and cultivating friendships with the press corps (who, whether on account of CodeOfHonor or because they bought into his platform, refrained from making his disability into an issue). Nonetheless, the fact that he was wheelchair bound was [[http://ideas.time.com/2013/07/12/the-myth-of-fdrs-secret-disability/ more or less an]] OpenSecret, with more than a few leaks to the public, and yet either because of the scale of TheGreatDepression, the lack of 24/7 News coverage in the pre-television era or his personal popularity, this never quite mattered to either him, the public or his political opponents. In fact, his partial debilitation had silver linings: he was facing serious political scandal about undercover Military Police agents entrapping homosexuals in the Navy through oral sex and no one wanted to then press too hard to a person so seriously ill. More importantly, Franklin developed considerable empathy for people enduring misfortune through no fault of their own (albeit with occasional blindspots[[note]]Such as not supporting Federal anti-lynching bills because he felt there was not enough political support when he had to get broader legislation passed, giving in to wartime racist hysteria and setting up internment for Japanese-Americans and not doing nearly enough to specifically interfere with UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust[[/note]]), a quality which would be sorely needed during the global hardships he would face as president. The fact that his wife, UsefulNotes/{{Eleanor|Roosevelt}}, was a staunch activist for the underdog proved a major influence on him as well, even if his continual philandering with other women was an irritant that permanently cooled their marriage.

Roosevelt is, to date, the only physically-disabled President.[[note]](though UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy was nearly there, having a hormonal disorder called Addison's disease, likely caused by an underlying lifelong autoimmune disorder, that left him weak, and a debilitating back injury that he got playing football in college and then exacerbated in the Navy). While FDR was susceptible to a lot of illnesses, likely including his paralytic one, due to being an isolated only child, ''pre''-paralysis he was far healthier than JFK, who'd had numerous hospitalizations and brushes with death by about the same age. Kennedy also took scrupulous care to hide his medical issues from the public, projecting an image of health and "vigor". The "bad back" was about all he admitted.[[/note]] In the summer of 1921, he became gravely ill a few weeks after he took his sons to the annual Boy Scout jamboree. He was diagnosed with polio but is now believed to have had [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt%27s_paralytic_illness Guillain–Barré syndrome]], due to his symptoms and the circumstances in which he got it. It took him until the end of the year to recover, but he remained permanently paralyzed from the waist down. He did his best to keep the extent of his illness secret from the public, insisting on being photographed from the waist up (to hide his wheelchair), standing with the surreptitious assistance of aides at public functions, and using his truly impressive upper body strength to hold himself up at podiums.

Using leg braces and canes, he was able to stand and even walk short distances[[note]]He'd also occasionally stand between aides and use them and his own strength to hold himself up while swinging his hips to move his legs and give the impression that he was walking under his own power[[/note]]. He was also a fierce SlaveToPR, taking good care on how he presented himself to the public, and cultivating friendships with the press corps, who on account of CodeOfHonor, or because they bought into his platform, refrained from making his disability into an issue. Nonetheless, the fact that he was wheelchair bound was [[http://ideas.time.com/2013/07/12/the-myth-of-fdrs-secret-disability/ more or less an]] OpenSecret, with more than a few leaks to the public, and yet either because of the scale of TheGreatDepression, the lack of 24/7 News coverage in the pre-television era or his personal popularity, this never quite mattered to either him, the public or his political opponents. In fact, his partial debilitation had silver linings: he was facing serious political scandal about undercover Military Police agents entrapping homosexuals in the Navy through oral sex and no one wanted to then press too hard to a person so seriously ill. More importantly Franklin developed a considerable empathy for people enduring misfortune for no fault of their own, with occasional blindspots[[note]]Such as not supporting Federal anti-lynching bills because he felt there was not enough political support when he had to get broader legislation passed, giving in to wartime racist hysteria and setting up internment for Japanese-Americans and not doing nearly enough to specifically interfere with UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust[[/note]], that would be sorely needed in the global hardships he would face as President. The fact that his wife, Eleanor, was a determined activist for the underdog, was a major influence on him as well, even if his continual two-timing with other women was an irritant that permanently cooled their marriage.

To further his goals, Roosevelt revolutionized the office's communication with the public with the aid of technology. Most famously, instead of the typical bellowing speeches to a mass audience of old before microphones, he would have a series of more conversational radio addresses called the "Fireside Chats." With that relatively soft-spoken approach, Roosevelt proved capable of winning over many to his policies, such as his first one that persuaded much of the public to take money they were hoarding under their mattresses after the wave of bank failures to put it back into those financial institutions after the national "banking holiday" which banks were closed for days to allow for sufficient funds and organizational reforms to be put in place to restore confidence in them.