And in the outside lane, closing fast . . . .

An exchange over at View from the Right:

[Modahl:] Roosevelt was a gifted politician, and was described by a sympathizer as "a first rate temperament, but a second rate intellect." But instead of trying to communicate to the public a sense of self-sufficiency, he told them that their troubles were the work of evildoers, and that big government could assuage them. He listened to economic crackpots, and deepened and prolonged the depression. He completely misread and misunderstood Stalin, and stored up enormous problems for his successors. He ignored the tradition of the two term presidency, even though he knew was sick and in decline. He pioneered in the politics of setting class against class, and presided over the gutting of large portions of the US [Constitution], particularly the economic Constitution. His ERA [NRA?] was copied from Mussolini. I could go on. Surely calling this man a second rate president is if anything too kind.

Mr. Auster objects that this does not go to the question of FDR’s effectiveness as a leader but rather that the commenter’s real objection is that FDR was, in fact, very effective as a leader but his talents were used to take the country in a wrong direction.

[Modahl:] If we are talking about no more than the ability to sway people, then Mr. Auster is correct that FDR was a very skilled, not a "second-rate" leader, but as a president I consider him second rate because of his lack of sympathy or understanding of our essential constitutional form of government. . . . Probably no president did more to permanently damage the founding ideals than FDR, though President Lincoln for all his greatness, must also be credited with wrecking of the original federalist arrangement under pressure of the Civil War.

Comments by William Modahl after "Irving Kristol reveals the true meaning of neoconservatism." By Lawrence Auster, View from the Right, 8/16/03 (emphasis added).