Popular Culture Review Volume 29, Number 2, Summer 2018 | Page 104

Black Belt and Blue Water
1864 , and , like Lincoln , FDR made the most of his role as commander in chief while Dewey toured the country , racking up short-term gains with attacks on the ‘ tired old men ’ who were running the government and making outrageous claims of Communist influence ” ( Smith 2008 624 ).
Cross points out that this was “ exactly what Roosevelt ’ s campaign needed .” FDR “ turned the tables on his opponents by delivering what Samuel Rosenman called ‘ the greatest political speech of his career .’” FDR had bided his time until the opportunity was perfect . “ On 23 September 1944 , an energized Roosevelt displayed his legendary skill and vigor once again as he spoke about his ‘ little dog , Fala ’” ( Cross 1962 183 ).
Among the many writers who have dealt with this speech , Cross and Smith are perhaps the two best . First , however , let us look at FDR ’ s actual words . He began as follows :
Well , here we are together again�after four years�and what years they have been ! You know , I am actually four years older , which is a fact that seems to annoy some people . In fact , in the mathematical field there are millions of Americans who are more than eleven years older than when we started in to clear up the mess that was dumped in our laps in 1933 .
We all know that certain people who make it a practice to depreciate the accomplishments of labor�who even attack labor as unpatriotic�they keep this up usually for three years and six months in a row . But then , for some strange reason they change their tune�every four years�just before
89