Why was Teddy Roosevelt a good president?

Answer 1

Franklin D. Roosevelt was a good president and a bad president for many reasons. First of all, obviously, he WAS the president who led us through World War 2, which is a task that deserves merit. For isolationists, he was a good president because he maintained neutrality which meant that the US wasn't going to get involved in the affairs of other countries. When the Japanese invaded Manchuria on September 1931, FDR issued the Stimson Doctrine which stated that territorial acquisitions made by force would not be recognized. This was useless however, but it reflected the American sentiment at the time which called for non-intervention. The Neutrality Acts of the 1930s also bolstered the idea of neutrality. However, in late-1940 or early 1941, the US began to shift away from isolationism and onto the side of the Allies. However, FDR sent money and supplies rather than troops which made people happy because they weren't sending their young men off to war.

Other than that, he also engineered the New Deals (waves of legislation that were designed to stave off the Great Depression). The first New Deal was for "relief and recovery". Relief was for immediate needs like food, etc. Recovery was creating jobs, etc. so that people could become more self sustaining. He passed many pieces of legislature that allowed people to go to work. In the Second New Deal, he went for "recovery and reform". Reform measures were designed to prevent this crisis from happening ever again. Under these New Deal measures, measures such as as the Federal Deposit Insurance Company was established that were designed to help the nation.

Despite these good intentions, there is question to whether these measures were actually helpful. It didn't really fully help the economy (that was stimulated by the war which caused more jobs and money as other countries were placing war orders in the US), as can be shown by the fact that the second Roosevelt pulled out government spending, the nation went back into Recession, also known as the "Roosevelt Recession".

So, I would say that Roosevelt had good intentions but was not a very EFFECTIVE president. You could definitely argue both sides.

Answer 2

He was so popular because during the great depression he made people feel good about themselves and made them feel that they could make it through it. World War II ended the Depression and America got back on track.

Answer 3

Theodore Roosevelt built the Panama Canal