PrintAugust 3, 2008
Barack, meet Wendell
We've seen this before: a young, attractive, and politically inexperienced candidate comes out of nowhere to claim a presidential nomination. Is history repeating itself?In 1940, one of the most unlikely political ascensions in history occurred when Wendell Willkie came out of nowhere to claim the Republican nomination and challenge Franklin Delano Roosevelt for the Presidency. There are major contextual and personal differences, to be sure. But the personality, experience and choices of Willkie seem eerily reminiscent of Obama to me. Others have seen this before me, such as Alexander Heffner of TIME magazine.Willkie's experience consisted of being a soldier, corporate lawyer and company president of an electric utility company. He served as a delegate to the Democratic convention and supported FDR and the New Deal. However, when Roosevelt intruded into utilities matters by instituting the Tennessee Valley Authority, and when FDR began to lean toward war, the...(Read Full Article)
