I just watched American Experience: Eleanor Roosevelt.

[NNadir]

I am in heaven.

It was thrilling to remember how great an American political figure could be.

What a tremendous, awe inspiring human being.

[barb162]

1. She was wonderful

a real humanitarian

[GrumpyGreg]

2. I had seen it before but watched it all the way through

again tonight.

What an amazing lady.

I have an 11 year old grandaughter who is smitten with her also---I gave her a kids biography of Mrs Roosevelt last year.

[Captain Hilts]

4. The two bios for young adults by Chelsea House are both good.

Yes, one of the last, great, unvarnished politicians. Barry Goldwater and Harry Truman are the others.

[GrumpyGreg]

5. Truman yes,but Barry Goldwater? And I even think of Truman

as sort of an accidental politician.

[Captain Hilts]

9. Yeah, Goldwater was pretty unvarnished.

Truman was too.

[LA lady]

3. Me, too

I watched almost all of it and went to the pbs website to read more. I want to check out a bio or two and learn a lot about this incredible woman. What a sad childhood she had!

[NNadir]

6. Try "No Ordinary Time." It was well done.

[Captain Hilts]

11. "No Ordinary Time" is mostly about Franklin.

It really gives short shrift to a lot of what Eleanor was up to and whitewashes some of his insensitivity to her vis a vis his mother, and after her brother died.

Kenneth Davis's series has the best interpretation of Eleanor of the Franklin books.

Rexford Tugwell's "The Democratic Roosevelt," written in the late 1950s, is still the best one volume FDR biography in my view.

[NNadir]

16. Well, it's been some time since I read "No Ordinary Time" but I loved

the Eleanor who appears in those pages. I will check out the Davis books when I have time.

Mrs. Roosevelt is my favorite Democrat ever. I admire her above all others, including her husband.

[Captain Hilts]

17. I agree. They're tops.

But it's weird how the very reasons he was a lousy husband are often the reasons he was such a good president.

If you can, get your hands on a copy of "Dinner at the White House," the book that Churchill sued over in England. It's a terrific piece about the last dinner for Churchill at the White House.

[NNadir]

18. I'd love to read it. Thanx. n/t

[FreedomAngel82]

7. Eleanor is amazing

She's truly a hero to me personally and someone who I can relate to.

[bumblebee1]

8. This past September

my husband and I had the opportunity to take a bus trip to visit mansions along the Hudson River. The first place we stopped was Hyde Park, the home of Franklin, Eleanor and Sarah Roosevelt's home. Eleanor had to develop the confidence because she had to deal with Sarah Roosevelt, her mother-in-law. To say that Sarah was a dominating woman is an understatement.

[Cooley Hurd]

10. Did you go to Val-Kill? That's where you get major ER vibes!

Her home, post-FDR, was Val-Kill (about 2 miles from Springwood, Sara's house). It's just as she left it in 1962. I've been there several times and I always feel spiritually regenerated when I visit.

[Captain Hilts]

15. I got a Val-Kill tour of her clothes closets and bathroom!

The rod in the closet to accommodate the evening gowns of a woman that tall were about seven feet high and I could see the top of my head in the bathroom mirror. Again, scaled to her.

That was cool.

[bumblebee1]

20. No, Cooley Hurd.

Val-Kill was talked about during the tour of Hyde Park.

[no_hypocrisy]

12. ER was remarkable in so many ways, but the most amazing

thing about her is the perseverance she demonstrated. She was born with all the advantages in the world, yet she had some of the most cruel challenges from Day One, some of which followed her to her grave. She found peace within herself and shared her vision of a better world by action. When JFK ordered the flags on government buildings to be put at half-mast when she died, it was all too fitting. There will never be another.

[Captain Hilts]

14. She chose NOT to be a victim, but an activist.

A true, self-actualizing person who took an active - rather than passive - role in her own life. Not easily done by women back them, especially a politician's wife.

And here's to you Mrs. Roosevelt, Jesus loves you more than you will know...

13. She was amazing

and she was even spied on by Hoover. History repeats itself. Here we are with the spying menace again.

[Yollam]

19. My wife and I watched it too.

It's almost heartbreaking to see how people of such character and depth (FDR, too) once strived to make this country great.

Looking at today's "leaders", one can't help but be struck by how spoiled, infantile, uncouth and self-centered they are (and unfortunately, that applies to a lot on our side of the aisle, too.)


Can you imagine people being moved by one of Bush's idiotic attempts at speaking in the way that Kennedy, FDR and Eleanor, MLK, once moved us?