Old Radio

January 30: Happy Birthday, Franklin D. Roosevelt My fireside chats usually center why these new-fangled lighters are so hard to use, but our 32nd president had something else in mind with his. Since today commemorates the birth of FDR , let's take a look at his famous fireside chats. There were thirty-one in all, from 1933 to 1944. These fireside chats were radio addresses to a nation first in the grips of the Great Depression and then embroiled in World War II . The name was meant to suggest informality, casualness, all of us as equals with the president. The first was on March 12, 1933, and it dealt with the banking crisis and the country's economic travails. The second one outlined the New Deal Program, and others dealt with a 1936 drought, "the European War" (Sept. 3, 1939), the declaration of war with Japan (Dec. 9, 1941), the progress of the war (Feb. 23, 1942) and other topics, usually controversial, important, and timely. Not a lot of historian...

Who was President Clinton ? A far-left liberal? A proponent of socialized healthcare? An interesting boss for an intern? A great president for the economy? The man who helped inspire a generation of right-wing radio hosts?  Perhaps all of those and more. But we know he was an outstanding speaker, his voice rising and falling, passionate, sometimes angry, sometimes carrying a verbal smile. Like all presidents from FDR onward, Clinton appeared on the airwaves as a way of keeping us informed and/or getting his message out. His southern twang gave us many state of the union addresses, tried to calm us after the tragedy at Oklahoma City, discussed airstrikes in Iraq, and addressed the Monica Lewinsky scandal. He may have appeared on MTV during his successful first campaign, but he also used the radio , and for that, we wish him a happy birthday.