"It’s Not a Pretty Sight"

"Hoover determined to exploit this interim to salvage his presidency. No sooner had the ballots been counted than he invited Governor Roosevelt to confer with him. The overture gave every appearance of being an exceptionally generous offer to share power with the man who had vanquished him. In fact, it was the first step of a scheme to undo the results of the election. Hoover acted, the historian Frank Freidel later wrote, 'as though he felt it was his duty to save the nation, indeed the world, from the folly of the American voters.'"

William E. Leuchtenburg in The New York Times warns President-Elect Barack Obama about becoming too close to the lame-duck George W. Bush.

"George, You Were No Herbert Hoover"

"Two days after entering the White House in March 1929, Hoover, who for years had been warning about 'the fever of speculation,' exhorted Federal Reserve officials to rein in brokers and investment bankers. Following the Black Monday stock market crash that October, he summoned leaders of industry and finance to the White House, where he implored them to maintain wage rates; he urged Congress and state and local governments to accelerate public works spending; he prodded the Federal Reserve Board to expand credit; and he encouraged a newly created Federal Farm Board to bolster crop prices."

William E. Leuchtenburg in The New Republic contrasts George W. Bush with Herbert Hoover.