If Democrats keep running against Herbert Hoover, as they have on and off since 1932, they may have to invest in a substantial educational campaign to make it clear that they are not talking about a former FBI director, a dam on the Colorado river, or vacuum cleaners.
Democratic candidates and interest groups frequently charge that President Bush’s Administration is the first since Hoover’s to record a net job loss and they compare him to the President whom Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated in 1932.
But when the University of Pennsylvania’s National Annenberg Election Survey asked people “Just your best guess, what was Herbert Hoover known for?” only 43 percent of the public said he had been president or connected him to the Depression or the stock market crash.
