by Ignacio Gutierrez

Created on: November 18, 2008   Last Updated: January 16, 2009

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" Franklin D Roosevelt declared on his inaugural address upon his first 100 days in office. It's arguable how this eventually resonated with thousands of Japanese, Italian and German Americans who were forced into internment camps during his presidency. Let alone African Americans who endured insufferable racism hardly addressed by FDR's refusal to enact anti-lynching legislation among his landmark reforms. FDR never made lynching a federal crime for fear of upsetting the Dixiecrats, or Southern Democrats that would've otherwise opposed his New Deal programs, many which enough economists have proven prolonged the Great Depression by seven years.

Somehow these and other details are overlooked by historians and pundits when pulling out the yardstick of FDR's first 100 days to measure how succeeding presidents will get started on solid footing. And with media outlets already drawing comparisons such as this week's TIME cover portraying Barack Obama with FDR's hat and cigarette holder in mouth, perhaps FDR's first 100 days, and the thousands which followed, should serve as examples of what Obama ought NOT do during his presidency. Though in all fairness, the interment camp fiasco occurred under FDR's third and fourth terms, two further examples of what not to follow.

But times have radically changed and the US is an entirely different nation. One for the better, considering the election of its first African American president. But there remains one major crisis Obama will face as did FDR an economic recession inching closer to a global depression.

While others in the media, particularly the far right, depicted Obama as a socialist and Marxist given his redistribution of wealth remarks, his first interview as President-elect on CBS's 60 minutes should ease some of their fears. He stated his first priority was national security, immediately followed by his concern for the economy. But given the inordinate amount of bail out plans and economic stimulus packages totaling into the trillions, many are wondering as 60 Minute's Steve Kroft asked "where is all the money going to come from?"

"We shouldn't worry about the deficit next year or even the year after. Short term, the most important thing is that we avoid a deepening recession" Obama explained.

But with lessons learned 75 years since the Great Depression, now is not the time to experiment, much less with the very policies that failed. Considering experimenting is what FDR

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