¶ … Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin (New York: Simon & Schuster Reprint, 1995)
Chapter 5 is entitled "No Ordinary Time." It begins with a reminder that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the first president to seek a third term in office. Then, the two-term limit was a "tradition," not a law (126). Republicans and even some Democrats resisted Roosevelt's attempt to win a third term but other politicians agreed with the sentiments of one senator who stated: "If times were normal, I would not favor a third term...but I consider 1940 an abnormal year" (93). Of course, none of the events presided over by FDR during his first two terms were ordinary, like the magnitude of the economic effects of the Great Depression. President Roosevelt was weary, and part of him looked forward to retirement, but he had groomed no clear successor (90-91).
As well as detailing the controversy over Roosevelt's third term, the chapter also contains a great deal of personal drama. It depicts a comic dinner party between the Democratic party chief, Franklin's mother Sara who still presided over dinners as if her son was unmarried, and mourned that he had to go into politics and mix with such "dreadful" (that is, lower class) people (95). Her son was far more democratic in spirit, and he would even allow his personal secretary "Missy" to act as hostess when Eleanor was away (120). Of course, this raises the question if Missy and Roosevelt were lovers, especially as Missy would occasionally wear nightgowns as evening gowns to these affairs -- out of poverty or another motive, one wonders?
However, it was Eleanor who took Franklin's place at the Democratic National Convention, when Democrats balked at granting her husband a third chance at the White House, even though Eleanor, for all of her popularity and political acumen was looking forward to a quieter life. Chapter 5 paints a picture of a nation, a White House, and a couple coming to terms with the extraordinary demands of the first half of the 20th century. But although war was on the horizon, ultimately the American public had confidence in its leadership.
