March 20, 2004

HERBERT WHO?:

The Fog Of History Strikes Again CBBS News, 3/19/04)

Unemployment and outsourcing are big issues in Campaign 2004, but Democrats hoping to make political hay out of them might want to be a bit more original than Democrats of yesteryear.

They've traditionally been fond of pointing to the Republican Party as the party of Herbert Hoover, on whose watch the nation sunk into the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Hoover has in fact been mentioned repeatedly by the John Kerry campaign as the last president until George W. Bush to oversee a loss of jobs. But a national poll finds that most people don't connect the Hoover name with the presidency, the Depression (whose camps of suddenly homeless individuals were known as "Hoovervilles") or the 1929 stock market crash.

Just 43 percent of the 634 adults questioned by the University of Pennsylvania's National Annenberg Election Survey correctly identified Herbert Hoover. Twelve percent thought he was the director of the FBI, a post held for 48 years by J. Edgar Hoover. Four percent linked the name to the Hoover Dam, the Nevada-Arizona structure honoring the former president. Three percent thought Hoover had something to do with the vacuum cleaner invented in 1907 (by Ohio janitor James Spangler, whose cousin William H. Hoover became president of his company). [...]

The nation's touch of amnesia when it comes to history cuts both ways - politically, that is. [...]

Pollsters discovered that only one out of five people connected [Jane] Fonda - a two-time Oscar winner who continues to be politically active, although less controversially in recent years - with opposition to the Vietnam War.

Only 20 percent of those surveyed knew Fonda as a Vietnam War protester. Twice that many identified Fonda as an actress, 9 percent tied her to exercise videos, and 2 percent linked her name to either her father, the late Oscar-winning actor Henry Fonda, or to her ex-husband, maverick media mogul Ted Turner. Another 11 percent gave a variety of answers while 17 percent had no answer at all.


Come to think of it, when was the last time Ms Fonda was in a movie?

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 20, 2004 1:53 PM
Comments

Not counting ducumentaries, voice work, exercise tapes and such, it seems to be Stanley & Iris (1990).

Posted by: PapayaSF at March 20, 2004 3:31 PM

P.S.: I do know how to spell ''documentaries.''

Posted by: PapayaSF at March 20, 2004 3:32 PM

This doesn't cut both ways. People may not connect Fonda with Vietnam protests but there are tapes, articles, and witnesses placing Kerry with the protesters. I don't think there are tapes, articles, and witnesses tying Hoover and Bush together.
And on the subject of the economy, the Dems make themselves look ridiculous when they try to compare the current situation with the depression (i.e. where are all the Hoovervilles?)

Posted by: AWW at March 20, 2004 3:45 PM

I sure hope my 16 year old son knows. He just had to write a paper on the Great Depression for his American History Class.

Posted by: Robert Schwartz at March 20, 2004 5:38 PM

Hoover, Nixon, Reagan, Bush the Elder-- The Dems always run against the the past because they have no future to offer. The best example of this is their upcoming nomination of a man who thinks his 4 months in a war over thirty years past are all the qualification he needs to become President.

Posted by: Raoul Ortega at March 20, 2004 9:35 PM

CBS didn't have much luck with their Streisand-produced Reagan hit job last fall -- perhaps this year the network and Ms. Fonda can get together on a pre-election Herbert Hoover biography so as to remind the electorate of the Republican party's evilness before it's too late...

Posted by: John at March 20, 2004 10:39 PM

On outsourcing to India. Five or six years ago when I called IBM for service I spoke to a site outside of Dublin Ireland. Two months ago I called IBM with a service question and talked to a site in India. Job loss for the Irish. Five or six years ago the USA had a problem finding qualified technical people available for hire in the USA and that was about when the trend began. Outsourcing is clearly a non-issue except for the rust belt and sweat shops where they want to make it a political issue. Kerry claims he will minimize it's use. Central planning anyone?

Posted by: genecis at March 21, 2004 1:41 PM

The whole Hoover-Bush comparison is hogwash, anyway.

In the first place, Hoover actually reacted pretty well to the depression.
As a member of Coolidge's administration, while things were still going great, he warned the President that the stock market was overheated, and that too many banks were speculating with customer's deposits, like a Roaring 20s Greenspan.
Once the market crashed, he immediately increased governmental spending, and called for a massive tax cut.

In 1931, out of a total population of 123 million, there were 11 million unemployed people.

In 2004, out of a total population of 293 million, 9.9 million are unemployed.
(8.2 million officially, and another 1.7 million willing to work, but not officially counted).

Posted by: Michael Herdegen at March 22, 2004 3:29 AM

Michael:

Hoover raised taxes, disastrously.

http://www.house.gov/jec/press/2003/11-05-03.htm

Posted by: oj at March 22, 2004 8:58 AM
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