Does Barack Obama Really Have It Worse Than FDR? (Besides the Fact That He Has to Deal with Joe Biden)

There’s nothing wrong with impolitic, gaffe-prone Vice President Joe Biden that a well-timed honking horn, quacking duck, or fog horn wouldn’t cure, or at least, soften…

In a 20-minute speech in the lobby of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Biden said President Obama "has inherited the most difficult first 100 days of any president, I would argue, including Franklin Roosevelt."

Honk. Quack. Aooooga.

See? It's all better. Granted, he was defending his boss, a man he makes grimace more than a country club full of AIG robber barons. But it’s a lame defense.

Seriously, Joe, sometimes you remind me of a cross between the oracle in 300 and the father of a girl I was dating in high school, who met me in his underwear and asked if I was "packing" condoms. ,

The problem with claiming our current Hobopocalypse is somehow worse than the existential economic flattening that happened in the 1930’s is that it’s a patently dishonest rhetorical tool. It’s really no different than the Bush Administration telling Americans that the War on Terror was somehow equitable to World War II. Apples and oranges, industrialized, fully militarized Nazi Germany and Middle Eastern rednecks with attack camels.

It's revisionist, drama-queen hyperbole. There are huge differences between the Great Depression and our current crisis. For instance, bank deposits weren’t insured, 25% of Americans were unemployed, and "dollar menus" were called "soup kitchens" where scalding hot boot leather bisque was ladled directly into your mouth. Plus, cannibal newsies pitchfork fought in the streets.

Economic meltdowns aren't competitions. We aren't reliving The Great Depression, or The Greatest Depression. This is our own, unique, special mess. Most likely, it's just The I Will Rent Forever, Never Pay Off Student Loans, And Eat Nothing But Easy Mac, God This Sucks Balls Recession. And that is good enough for me.

Tags: Barack Obama, Economy, Franklin Roosevelt, Joe Biden