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Putin's Role Model

FDR, apparently.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20080108/cm_usatoday/putinsrolemodel

Quote:

While Time saw fit to linger on "the Russian president's pale blue eyes," they left out a fascinating rationale for Putin's power grab. For much of the last year, the Russian government has been lionizing an American president who roughly seized the reins of power, dealt briskly with civil liberties, had a harsh view of constitutional niceties and crafted a media strategy, which critics derided as "propaganda," that went "over the heads" of the Washington press corps.

George W. Bush? Nope. Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
...
Back in the here and now, GWB has done nothing remotely like what FDR did (for good or for ill, some might say). Despite the constant bleating about his hostility to the rule of law and civil liberties, he hasn't tried to, say, pack the Supreme Court, or round up hundreds of thousands of Japanese (or Muslim) people.

Please try to look at things in the context of the times they happened. It is really easy to say something that happened in the past should not have been done or could have been done differently. The internment camps for Japanese Americans was a terrible injustice for these people, but the "mood of the country", a sneak attack, and the atrocities being done by the Japanese Army in places like Nanking all contributed to something the country wanted; to feel a little safer against sabotage. It is also interesting that German and Italian Americans were not treated the same way; a form of racism in itself. Like I said, the 20/20 hindsight of history. I would, respectfully, question the "packing the Supreme Court" comment. Given the opportunity, any president will try to appoint like-minded people to positions of decision making.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moneyguy1 (Post 3691086)

But FDR tried to increase the size of the Supreme Court so that he could appoint a number of sympathetic justices.

Here it is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court_packing

Quote:

The Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937, frequently called the Court-packing Bill, was a law proposed by United States President Franklin Roosevelt. While the bill contained many provisions, the most notorious one (which led to the name "Court-packing Bill") would have allowed the President the power to appoint an extra Supreme Court Justice for every sitting Justice over the age of 70½. This was proposed in response to the Supreme Court overturning several of his New Deal measures that proponents claim were designed to help the United States recover from the Great Depression.

But the proposal didn't pass. Therefore it is one that the current or future presidents would not be able to try. Ya gotta give FDR points for creativity, whether you agree with his idea or not.