That man! That's how my grandmother always referred

to FDR. Never 'the President' nor even Mr. Roosevelt. He was just "that man!" I'm told that there were a lot of people who called him that. In a way, "it" became him, synonymous. Even today, those who were alive during his years in the White House know who you're talking about if you utter "that man" with just the right inflection.

Some three score years later, at a town hall debate, one of the debating candidates refers to his opponent as "that one." Tossed off dismissively, as a put-down, those two words fly across the stage and land quite comfortably in the gentle aura that seems to cloak the opposing candidate.

By the next day the entire nation knew him as "That One". And I'm willing to bet that, twenty years from now if I'm still kicking, someone will say 'that one' and I'll remember with gladness that night in November when we watched the numbers put him over the top.

K&R

I was just a kid during the early years of that "Republican backlash". We lived in the "less affluent" areas of Brooklyn, predominantly Jewish, and I have no recollection of ever having heard that then. But there was no doubt that FDR's "Age of the Common Man" sent many of "the Better Sort" into brain-dead hysteria. That THEY were among the chief beneficiaries of the New Deal, was something that they were absolutely UNABLE to grasp! And yes! you were totally on target to note the eerie similarities between then and now.

Here's a recent DU thread that ties into yours: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x473545

pnorman

That was pretty shocking for Maine people in the 30'sand 40's and for a man who owned his own business. My father must have had a hard time as he hated big govt. but kept saying a town needed taxes to keep a society up to date and growing. 'You needed all these things' but he just hated big govt. Course he was in a very high tax group so I guess that did not help. My mother wanted national health care but would never vote for any one out side the GOP. I never could figure them out. I think they were all GOP people just out of habit. I my self was for years. This GOP is hardly that party by-the-way.

"That crippled son of a bitch."

The man was 70 (but not 63) years ahead of his time.

--d!

I had to have my sigmoid colon removed. A few hours after the surgery, they brought another patient into my room. For about 4 or 5 hours I was forced to listen to his mother or wife (I'm not sure since I couldn't see them) use the phrase "that African" in referring to Obama at least every third sentence. I was so frustrated that I couldn't get out of bed because of all the tubes and stuff hooked up to me. I wanted to at least scream at the racist @%#&! but the tube down my throat prevented even that. I was just glad that he was a same day surgery patient and went home that night. I never would have been able to tolerate it without the Morphine. Plus, all they did was pray the whole time because they were "good Christians". Damn hypocrites!