Even the liberal New Republic can get their Father of the New Deal facts wrong. The magazine’s architecture critic stumbled in a recent on-line salute to the fine fellow George Bush has hired to design his Presidential Library with “fantastic freedom institute” annex. Sarah Williams Goldhagen writes that”The first president to be honored with this by now de rigueur monument to posterity and the information glut of this Information Age is, of all the unlikely candidates, Herbert Hoover.”
Hoover served before FDR, but his Presidential Library came from a “You can do that?” moment after Roosevelt started his own Pharaohization in 1939. 
Hoover’s didn’t open till 1962. 

San Francisco Bay area labor union members were crucial to the restoration and preservation of Franklin Roosevelt’s Presidential Yacht, raising funds, working as volunteer labor and mobilizing political clout for government funding.
They may now enjoy watching their salute to “labor’s best friend” used as a platform for nouveau-riche wine cruises.
“Allow yourself to be transported back into an era where taste, elegance, and fabulous meals were a way of life.”



Wine cruise visitors are advised of a jackets “suggested” dress code which appears to have been violated by FDR while on board.
Don’t Ask, Don’t tell, Don’t Visit

Some of the People, Yes!
They may be upping admission to the FDR museum and the Eleanor Roosevelt cottage in Hyde Park New York.
National Parks Traveler reports that admission to the complex may rise to $18 a head, with an additional quintupling of admission fees to Eleanor’s cottage from $2 to $10.
This may come closer to the true costs of maintaining the sites, but is there a better way to discourage public access to publicly owned property?
“There is much of Roosevelt in John Edwards.”
JRE’s presidential fan page attracts a blog entry comparing the son of a mill worker with the gentleman farmer. “Fear itself” and so much more. Failed Vice Presidential run surprisingly unmentioned among the haunting parallels.
(more…)