ABSTRACT
Franklin Roosevelt ran through the whole repertoire of basic campaign themes-history's example par excellence of a flexible, responsive President, capable not only of sensing the pulse of politics but of adjusting his own tempo to its beat. The election that ushered in The Age of Roosevelt, like Harding's election, played to the public's need for an end to trouble. Unlike such battle elections as 1912 and 1924, the result in 1932 was a foregone conclusion before a single ballot was cast. Approaching the Democratic convention as the clear front-runner, Roosevelt ran up against fighting William Randolph Hearst, adamant enemy of Wilson's League of Nations. Roosevelt had come into national politics as a Wilson man, appointed assistant secretary of the navy; as Vice-Presidential candidate in 1920, he had campaigned hard for the league. With the great majority of editors and publishers against him, Roosevelt won over the reporters with his instinctive appreciation of their problems and his close-up charm.
