That kind of 'straight dealing' from a politician must have been a reflection of the no nonsense demeanor of the people generally. So is that just nostalgia now?

That was not straight dealing, Hannon. Roosevelt always dealt from the bottom of the deck.
He campained against Hoovers massive government bailout programs, and immediately doubled down those programs after inauguration, renaming them The New Deal.
Exhortations and pleadings for confidence were the very signiture of The New Deal.

Well. Here's the corollary to 'no vision'. It will finish the job of destroying us.

In the same year as FDR's above quote, Churchill said: "Our difficulties come from the mood of unwarrantable self-abasement into which we have been cast by a powerful section of our own intellectuals. They come from the acceptance of defeatist doctrines by a large proportion of our politicians. But what have they to offer by a vague internationalism, a squalid materialism, and the promise of impossible utopias?"

Read Bruce Thornton's 'Unwarranted Self-Abasement' at VHD's website. And weep.

"but he that keeps the law, happy is he"

You have no idea. And if you do, the next few years may be hard, keep your family and your friends close, if you keep all the laws, moral, ethical, legal and financial we'll all get throught it. Go read Winston Churchill, his unswerving focus on his moral duty brought Western Civilization through tougher times than these.

jamzw-

I'll take your word on that. Not surprising.

What pulled me in was not so much the words by themselves, since all politicians must sell their soul to achieve lofty positions, but contrasting them with anything that BHO has said or could conceivably say. That man has a trick deck, regardless of where he deals from.

My copy of Strong's Exhaustive Concordance renders 'perish' from the Hebrew (H6544) as follows:

para`, (paw-rah')... to loosen; by implication, to expose or dismiss; figuratively, to absolve, avenge, avoid, go back, let, (make) naked, set at nought, perish, refuse, or uncover.

Not sure that clears anything up, but it's interesting.

"Roosevelt always dealt from the bottom of the deck." I saw a clip of FDR on TV a few weeks: I think it was part of a series on American presidents, running for the inauguration. Roosevelt was on a White House balcony, overlooking the traditional Easter Egg roll. He addressed the children on the lawn, expressing his regret that he couldn't join them. "I already had my eggs at breakfast," he joked. Laughs all around.

Of course, the real reason he couldn't join them is FDR COULDN'T WALK and none of the children, or their parents, knew that.

How low can a man go?

I think that scene was one of the most revolting I've ever seen.

In other words, the responsible members of our republic are screwed three ways to Sunday by the mindless, naked mob.

Yeah, that's pretty much it.