Lady Bird Johnson passed...

[2bighorn]

Originally posted by storch
by reading

Reading HUAC propaganda pamphlets is a bit one sided, don't you think?

[Airscrew]

Originally posted by DYNAMITE
In your mind who was the best 1st lady?  What makes a good 1st lady?

LadyBird.

Best 1st Lady was Dolley Madison, cause she made those delicious cupcakes and pies and those cute little donuts that fed all the troops during the War of 1812.    

[storch]

Originally posted by 2bighorn
Reading HUAC propaganda pamphlets is a bit one sided, don't you think?

not knowing what HUAC is in the first place would make it difficult for me to to proscribe to their propaganda.  perhaps you should read up on her life yourself and then come to your own conclusion regarding the topic.

[Odee]

Oh big deal... her and her construction company's Viet Nam debacle can finally be laid to rest.  You know... Southland Corp?  Owners of 7-11 and other fine franchises?  Husband let Congress run the war in Viet Nam with meetings on Tuesday to see who we bomb on Thursday?

condolences How many of you morons out there actually even know any of the family members?

[AWMac]

Marilyn Monroe was a fine 2nd Lady... Ohh and Jackie O too.



*But that's just me with "My Candle in the Wind"*

Mac

[McFarland]

Eleanor Roosevelt was a good first lady. Ladybird, tis a sad thing.

[2bighorn]

Originally posted by storch
not knowing what HUAC is in the first place

Then you are the one who has some reading to do.

It's just amazing how import wannabe capitalists always stretch their mouths and try to diminish life and work of those who were dedicated to better this country.

[Seagoon]

Hello Dynamite,

Originally posted by DYNAMITE
In your mind who was the best 1st lady?  What makes a good 1st lady?
(Please refrain from making this a Hilary bashing session)

For me, it would have to be Eleanor Roosevelt...

To my mind it would probably be Abigail Adams, but that may just be because I've enjoyed reading her letters to her husband so much.

To my mind there are several qualities that make a good first lady:

First and foremost she remembers that she was not elected by the people, and that first lady is not an elected office with governing power, neither was she called to be part of an executive team. She remembers that it was her husband that was elected, and that she can actually serve the American people best by supporting him in his office, and helping him to handle the stresses of this high position. She can be especially helpful if she does not add to his burdens by entangling herself in party politics, garnering a cadre of controversial friends, or creating scandals of her own. Throughout his time in office she must be a woman of tact, reserve, and decorum.

If she is wise, she can assist him by privately making known her opinions, or what information she has gathered, as an example Abigail assisted her husband greatly via her thoughts and actually by providing valuable intelligence in her written correspondance during the Revolution.

She can also be invaluable in handling the myriad of social affairs that attend the office and as a person who can meet with and entertain foreign dignataries. Also, while he is running the government, it is very difficult for a President to also adequately handle the affairs of his own family and estate. During his years in the presidency, a woman who can take over those duties (as did Martha Washington, for instance) is a gem.

Personally, I'm curious why so many people think of Eleanor as the best first lady. What qualities did she have that make her a better first lady than say Martha Washington or even Mamie Eisenhower?

- SEAGOON

[Shuckins]

Lady-Bird Johnson.  RIP


HUAC = House Unamerican Activities Committee


Now a few thoughts:

On the suggestion that Eleanor Roosevelt was an elitist and a Communist:    


As to the equating of Hillary with Eleanor:                  

[tedrbr]

Originally posted by AquaShrimp
My grandfather, who was the Sgt Major of the island of Tongareva during World War II, met Eleanor Roosevelt when her plane landed to refuel.  He said that he had about an hour long conversation with her.  I'm not sure what Mrs. Roosevelt was doing all the way out in the Pacific during a war (though Tongareva was considered in-the-rear), but my grandfather had nothing but good things to say about her.

Because she was her husband's legs, eyes, and ears for much of his Presidency.  Many in the American public at the time were unaware that their President was confined to a wheelchair or leg braces.  
She traveled in his stead often, and was probably even more involved in her husband's Presidency than Hillary was for Bill.  She went were he could not, was his spokesman where she went, and reported what she saw and heard back to FDR.  
Her very active role is probably why she can usually be found at the top of most lists for "Best 1st Lady".

[storch]

Originally posted by Shuckins
Lady-Bird Johnson.  RIP


HUAC = House Unamerican Activities Committee


Now a few thoughts:

On the suggestion that Eleanor Roosevelt was an elitist and a Communist:    


As to the equating of Hillary with Eleanor:                  

  I have read about the house un-american activities committee.  the excesses of the junior senator from wisconsin did not change the fact that the roosevelt administration was mined with communists and that the roosevelt US state department was a defacto agency of the NKVD.  mrs roosevelt was a best a communist sympathizer and I'll let it go at that.

[Shuckins]

Did you also read that being a member of the Communist Party did not become a crime until after 1945?

The allegations that the Roosevelts were communist sympathizers resulted from the investigations of the newly created House Unamerican Activities Committe, whose first chairman was a conservative democrat from Texas, Martin Dies.  Dies was a staunch opponent of the New Deal and did everything in his power to link the Roosevelts and members of the presidential administration to Communists and Nazi sympathizers.

Although little of substance was ever found by these witch hunts, the baseless accusations took on a life of their own and have survived to this day, and are endlessly regurgitated by those willing to believe the worst about one of our greatest presidents.

While there were certainly people working in the federal government and in the private sector who were hostile to the United States and sympathetic to the Soviet Union, such as Alger Hiss and Julius Rosenberg, to assume that the State Department was rife with communist sympathizers is laughable.

The federal government has always had people in positions of authority hostile to the very government that they served, but to contend that President Roosevelt winked at the ativities of communist subversives within his administration is ludicrous.

[McFarland]

Ay, FDR was one of the greatest presidents we ever had, after reading a book completely aboot the minds of the great warlords of WWII (Warlords), it was him that kept the trade of arms and supplies to Britain open, and kept Churchill and Stalin from fighting at several of their meetings. He was the guy who kept the Allies allied during WWII. He was one of our greatest presidents, and his wife one of (if not the) greatest first ladies.

[storch]

Originally posted by Shuckins
Did you also read that being a member of the Communist Party did not become a crime until after 1945?

The allegations that the Roosevelts were communist sympathizers resulted from the investigations of the newly created House Unamerican Activities Committe, whose first chairman was a conservative democrat from Texas, Martin Dies.  Dies was a staunch opponent of the New Deal and did everything in his power to link the Roosevelts and members of the presidential administration to Communists and Nazi sympathizers.

Although little of substance was ever found by these witch hunts, the baseless accusations took on a life of their own and have survived to this day, and are endlessly regurgitated by those willing to believe the worst about one of our greatest presidents.

While there were certainly people working in the federal government and in the private sector who were hostile to the United States and sympathetic to the Soviet Union, such as Alger Hiss and Julius Rosenberg, to assume that the State Department was rife with communist sympathizers is laughable.

The federal government has always had people in positions of authority hostile to the very government that they served, but to contend that President Roosevelt winked at the ativities of communist subversives within his administration is ludicrous.

there is irrefutable evidence that the NKVD had infiltrated the manhattan project from it's very inception with the assistance of roosevelt state department officials.  it was people who viewed the affable mr roosevelt as a good president who elected him into office four times when he was actually doing incalculable harm to the nation if not western society with his harebrained policies and his execution thereof.  the man needed to have gone after his second term.  one of our best presidents?  we are still suffering under the weight of his imbecillic and catastrophic policies to this very day.

[Shuckins]

So...Storch....I take it then that when you turn 65, as a matter of principle, and to prove how strongly you disapprove of President Roosevelt's policies, you will refuse to draw your Social Security check?

Which of his policies, specifically do you find most dangerous?

The AAA....or the CCC....or the WPA....or the NRA?  How about the PWA?  And the TVA?  

There were few programs as damaging as the Rural Electrification Administration and the Farm Securities Administration was there?  And who could forget the subversive activities of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union and the NCAA, both of which the elitist, communistic Roosevelts gave their support to.

And don't forget the FDIC.

Yep, we would have been better off, in the long run, if the affable Mr. Roosevelt and his great-souled wife had left the country at 25% unemployment and large numbers of the populace on the point of starvation.