Franklin Delano Roosevelt

FDR 

[wikipedia] 

[Conservapedia]

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Early Life  

Roosevelt went to Harvard College – from which he graduated in 1904 – and where he lived in the "Gold Coast" area where wealthy and privileged students lived in luxurious quarters and was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. He was also president of The Harvard Crimson daily newspaper. While he was at Harvard, his fifth cousin Theodore Roosevelt became President, and Theodore's vigorous leadership style and reforming zeal made him Franklin's role model and hero. In 1902, he met his future wife Eleanor Roosevelt, Theodore's niece, at a White House reception (they had previously met as children, but this was their first serious encounter). Eleanor and Franklin were fifth cousins, once removed. They were both descended from Claes Martensz van Rosenvelt (Roosevelt), who arrived in New Amsterdam (Manhattan) from the Netherlands in the 1640s. Rosenvelt's (Roosevelt) two grandsons, Johannes and Jacobus, began the Long Island and Hudson River branches of the Roosevelt family, respectively. Eleanor and Theodore Roosevelt were descended from the Johannes branch, while FDR came from the Jacobus branch.
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State Senator

In the State election of 1910, Roosevelt ran for the New York State Senate from the district around Hyde Park in Dutchess County, which had not elected a Democrat since 1884. He entered the Roosevelt name, with its associated wealth, prestige, and influence in the Hudson Valley, and the Democratic landslide that year carried him to the state capital Albany. Taking his seat on January 1, 1911, he became the leader of a group of "Insurgents" who opposed the Tammany machine having dominated the state Democratic Party. 

 The "Tammany Machine" helped immigrants, most notably the Irish, rise up in American politics from the 1790s to the 1960s. It controlled Democratic Party nominations and patronage in Manhattan from the mayoral victory of Fernando Wood in 1854 through the election of John P. O'Brien in 1932. Tammany Hall was permanently weakened by the election of Fiorello La Guardia on a "fusion" ticket of Republicans, reform-minded Democrats, and independents in 1934, and, despite a brief resurgence in the 1950s, it ceased to exist in the 1960s.

The U.S. Senate election which began with the Democratic caucus on January 16, 1911, was deadlocked by the struggle of the two factions for 74 days. On March 31, James A. O'Gorman was elected, and Roosevelt had achieved his goal: to upset the Tammany machine by blocking their choice, William F. Sheehan. Roosevelt soon became a popular figure among New York Democrats. He was re-elected for a second term in the State election of 1912, but resigned from the New York State Senate on March 17, 1913, to accept his appointment as Assistant U.S. Secretary of the Navy.

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Campaign for Vice-President

The 1920 Democratic National Convention chose Roosevelt as the candidate for Vice President of the United States on the ticket headed by Governor James M. Cox of Ohio, helping build a national base, but the Cox-Roosevelt ticket was heavily defeated by Republican Warren G. Harding in the presidential election. Roosevelt then retired to a New York legal practice and joined the newly organized New York Civitan Club, but few doubted that he would soon run for public office again.

[FDR was attacked by Polio in the 1920's]

Governor of New York State

FDR established the first state relief agency under Harry Hopkins, who became a key adviser, and urged the legislature to pass an old age pension bill and an unemployment insurance bill. Roosevelt entered the governorship with a $15 million budget surplus left by previous governor Al Smith and left the state with a $90 million deficit.
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The Great Depression [Link]

The Forgotton Man by Amity Shlaes [Excerpts Link]

The New Deal [Wikipedia] [Conservapedia]

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Quotes and Speeches

FDR's Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr. [Wikipedia]
Testifying in front of the house ways and means committee in 1939

"We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong … somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises. … I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started. … And an enormous debt to boot."

Morgenthau was FDR’s closest confidant, the man who had been in charge of the spending — and after six years of it at this point, there was nothing to show for it and in point of fact, unemployment had gotten back up above twenty percent about a month before he made the statement. 
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[FDR's State of the Union Address of 1944  - FDR's Economic/New/2nd Bill of Rights]

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Harry Lloyd Hopkins [Wikepedia]
The Closest Adviser to FDR, Accused of being a spy.

An architect of the New Deal, and 'Relief Programs' of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) [which he directed and built into the largest employer in the country]. He was also Roosevelt's Chief Diplomatic Advisor and Key Policy Maker in the "Lend Lease program that sent aid to The Allies.

He had a relationship with Stalin  and was one of the few ppl able to get Stalin to accomplish foreign policies
 
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