President Biden’s recent catastrophic debate performance gave much credence to the increasingly widespread belief that he is senile, and more has been talked about it, including from those who were constantly trying to dismiss it before now. Should the Dems renominate him, it will be reminiscent of their renomination of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944. Although he certainly looked worse than in the past, Americans by and large didn’t know the extent of it. Democrats around FDR knew that he was not going to survive another term.

The Extent of FDR’s Health Problems

Although President Roosevelt appeared to be in good health for much of his presidency, on November 28, 1943, following the Tehran Conference he became ill, and although it was thought he had come down with the flu, by March 1944 his health had remained compromised and Senator Truman noted that Roosevelt looked unhealthy, yet Dr. Ross McIntire, an ear, nose, and throat specialist publicly claimed that FDR was “enjoying excellent health” (Susmano). FDR and his family were not satisfied with his care, and on March 28th, he was given a full physical by Dr. Howard G. Bruenn, a cardiologist. Bruenn’s diagnosis was serious: “hypertension, hypertensive heart disease, cardiac failure (left ventricle), and acute bronchitis” (The University of Arizona Health Sciences Library). His blood pressure was 186/108 mm Hg, and the next month it hit 230/126 mm Hg. A blood pressure of 180/120 mm Hg and above is today considered a hypertensive emergency (Edwards). Although I previously noted he appeared to be in good health, in truth he had had systolic hypertension since 1937, and diastolic hypertension since 1941 (Susmano). The public would in an election year get some indication that rumors about FDR’s worsening health were the real deal in his “Bremerton Speech”.

FDR’s Bremerton Speech

On August 12, 1944, FDR delivered a speech in Bremerton, Washington, that first indicated to the public that he might not be doing well. He had lost 20 pounds by acting on the advice of his physicians for a low-fat diet, and as a consequence his leg braces no longer fit his arms, and the unsteady movement of the ship he was speaking from forced him to hold himself up by his arms, an exercise of endurance for the aging president (Farley). Roosevelt was also unsteady and not smooth in his speech. Worse yet, starting ten minutes in he experienced an episode of chest pain that radiated to his shoulders, making this speech even more of an endurance effort, although this particular event didn’t prove to be serious. This event was not as publicly jarring as the Biden debate performance, but nonetheless doubts were spreading about him, and his reelection was looking increasingly questionable. However, his opponents would gift him with an opportunity, and he would make full use of it.

A Comeback: The Fala Rumor and “Fala Speech”

On August 31st, Rep. Harold Knutson (R-Minn.), a bitter opponent of the president on domestic and foreign policy, accused Roosevelt of extravagance on the House floor and referenced a rumor that he had accidentally left his Scottish terrier Fala on the Aleutian Islands and had sent a destroyer to pick him up. FDR responded to these charges on September 23rd in a speech before the Teamster’s Union, “The Republicans were not content to attack me, or my wife, or my sons. No, not content with that, now they even attack my little dog, Fala. Well, of course I don’t resent attacks, and my family doesn’t resent attacks, but Fala does resent them. You know, Fala is Scotch, and being a Scottie, as soon as he learned that the Republican fiction writers in Congress and out had concocted a story that I had left him behind on the Aleutian Islands and had sent a destroyer back to find him – at a cost to the taxpayer of two or three, or eight or twenty million dollars – his Scotch soul was furious. He has not been the same dog since. I am accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself – such as that old, worm-eaten chestnut that I have represented myself as indispensable. But I think I have a right to resent, to object to libelous statements about my dog” (Lewellyn, 66-67). The message to the public was clear: FDR was still on his game.

However…

Despite his public rally, Democrats around him knew he was unwell and would most likely not survive another term, and this prospect disturbed many Democrats given that Roosevelt’s vice president was Henry Wallace. Wallace was regarded as a radical and not trusted by many Democrats. Many certainly didn’t want him to be president, and although Roosevelt liked Wallace, some powerful voices were against him on the ticket, and he opted to switch him out. Initially, it looked possible that Jimmy Byrnes, FDR’s right-hand man on domestic affairs, could be tapped for the position. The problem here was that the South Carolinian Byrnes was a segregationist and picking him had the potential for widespread defections to the Republican ticket from black voters, whose switch to voting Democratic in presidential elections was only eight years old. The potential defections were not ones the Democrats wanted to risk, as this was going to be FDR’s closest election. Democrats needed as unified a ticket as possible, and thus the pick, or more accurately drafting, of the popular Senator Harry S. Truman from the border state of Missouri who was well-regarded among both Northern and Southern Democrats. He had chaired the incredibly popular Truman Committee, which had investigated and managed to in a non-partisan fashion identify and curb wasteful practices in national defense. Truman also had a loyal record to the New Deal, including voting to uphold President Roosevelt’s ill-fated “court-packing plan”. Frankly, Kamala Harris reminds me a bit of Henry Wallace in that both shared a staunchly left-wing philosophy (Harris was one of the most left-wing senators per DW-Nominate scoring) and were unpopular in their roles as vice president. Don’t hold your breath for Harris to be changed out because the staunch identitarians in the party will veto such a proposal.

Death

FDR, one day before his death.

Despite this seeming rally, it was short-lived, and his condition would deteriorate further in the coming months. At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, his blood pressure, which had become uncontrollable, spiked to 260/150 mm Hg. Dr. Lord Moran, Churchill’s personal physician, examined FDR and concluded, “I give him only a few months to live” (Ali et. al., 2). Indeed, on April 12, 1945, Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage, his blood pressure having spiked that morning to over 300/190 mm Hg (Susmano). No comparison is perfect, after all comparisons are by their nature imperfect, for an exact one would be the thing itself, and that’s not a comparison. Biden’s problems surround his mind, not his physicality, and he has nowhere near the political acumen of FDR. The comparison is in that Democrats may run a candidate they know to be seriously compromised, much like those around FDR knew that his health was seriously compromised. A “Fala speech” comeback seems most unlikely, even if Republicans hand him an opportunity (I wouldn’t be surprised if they do). However, Trump gave Biden material to work with in that debate, and he proved unable to effectively capitalize on it. The only sort of comeback I can see for Biden is if something very bad comes out about Trump, although given for certain quarters of the media that’s essentially another Tuesday, it may come down to what Edwin Edwards famously said about his election chances for Louisiana governor the day before election day in 1983: “The only way I can lose this election is if I’m caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy” (Warren). That could very well be so for Trump unless the Democrats change out Biden, and although there is talk of it now, I get the feeling that Americans will be subjected once again to this match-up, thanks to the party primary system. I am becoming increasingly convinced that the primary system should be abolished and that maybe “smoke-filled rooms” weren’t so bad, but that’s a post for another day.

References

Ali, R., Connolly, I.D., Li, A., Choudhri, O.A., Pendharkar, A.V., & Steinberg, G.K. (2016). The strokes that killed Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin. Neurosurgical Focus, 41(1).

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Autenrieth, M. (2021, April 10). The Dying President. National Park Service.

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Edwards, J.M. (2023, September 20). Hypertensive Urgency vs. Emergency: What’s the Difference? Healthline.

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https://www.healthline.com/health/high-blood-pressure-hypertension/hypertensive-urgency-vs-emergency

Farley, J. (2019, August 11). 75 years ago, the speech that changed Bremerton, Roosevelt. Kitsap Sun.

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https://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/2019/08/11/75-years-ago-speech-changed-bremerton-and-president-roosevelt/1960507001/

Franklin D. Roosevelt – Disability and deception. The University of Arizona Health Sciences Library.

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https://lib.arizona.edu/hsl/materials/collections/secret-illness/fdr

Harris, Kamala Devi. Voteview.

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https://voteview.com/person/41701/kamala-devi-harris

Llewellyn, J. (2010). Paws, Pathos, and Presidential Persuasion: Franklin Roosevelt’s “Fala Speech” as Precursor and Model for Richard Nixon’s “Checkers Speech”. CTAMJ.

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https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1043&context=ctamj

Susmano, A. (2017, January 31). Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s last illness. Hektoen International.

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https://hekint.org/2017/01/31/franklin-delano-roosevelts-last-illness/

Warren, J. (2010, August 22). Blagojevich Fatigue? Get Used to It. The New York Times.

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