FDR--A Four Term Progressive Part 2

In 1920, FDR had his first run at a national office. The Democrats selected him as the running mate for Ohio Governor, James Cox. It was not a good year for the Democrats. Wilson had botched his opportunity at Versailles. Congress had shot down our joining the League of Nations and Wilson himself had declared in 1919 that within a decade the world would find itself again at war.

The Republicans ran Republican Warren Harding also from the Buckeye State. His running mate was Calvin Coolidge. They handily defeated Cox and Roosevelt. Harding ended up having one of the most scandalous administrations in the history of the nation and died three years into his term. His womanizing and the famous Teapot Dome scandal brought a huge uproar in the nation. His Secretary of Interior, Albert Fall, leased the oil at Teapot Dome, oil that was part of the naval reserve, to oil operator Harry Sinclair. Coolidge,with no blemishes from the scandal, took over as president with Harding's death.

FDR let no grass grow under his feet. Having contracted what many thought was poliomyelitis, it now appears it was more likely Gullian-Barre syndrome, FDR underwent a wide variety of therapies for his illness. He was able, even during his presidency, to keep his illness secret from the public.

His handicap did not keep him from running for the Governor's office in New York in 1928. He had stayed close to the leaders of the Democratic party despite the fact that he had been an outspoken opponent of Tammany Hall, the Democratic machine in New York City.

One of his early steps was to assist Al Smith in his victory for the Governor's office in 1922. Then at the 1924 and 1928 Democratic National Conventions, Roosevelt gave speeches nominating Smith for the presidency. This endeared him to Smith who asked FDR to run for the Governor's position he was vacating.

FDR's run for the Governor came at the ideal time. The nation was prospering and Roosevelt moved to help it along with tax relief for the farmers of New York State and cheap electricity. Then in 1929, the stock market collapsed and the country fell into the Great Depression. Roosevelt moved immediately calling for government involvement. He put into place a model of what would later become the Civilian Conservation Corps. Over 100,000 men and boys were put to work in New York planting trees, putting erosion plans into place, and building park buildings in New York's state forests. Once again big government was on the move and Roosevelt, the new Progressive governor, was going to light up the sky with government programs and government spending that would take him from the seat of power in Albany to the seat of power in Washington, DC