I'm John Bachelor with David Patricia.

Great fun.

David Patricia's book is great fun because at the time it was tragedy upon tragedy. People were struggling to have

confidence each day that there would be a tomorrow. The world of the United States

at this time was watching Europe tumble into the catastrophe we know is the

second war, still with us, still scarring mankind. But at this moment we come to election night and David celebrates

election night by taking us to a scene in the Hyde Park scene, the one where

Roosevelt always returned to Hyde Park. It was like he recharged his batteries there.

Eleanor is in a white chiffon gown with an immense red rose. I'm following in her belt.

I'm following David's reporting. The reporters are gathered

outside the teletype machines are chattering away. David, they still

expected for it to be close that late in the night is that correct?

Well they didn't know and the politics is a time of surprises.

Jim Farley was always very confident he had predicted that Roosevelt would take 46 out of 48 states.

Franklin Roosevelt was predicting a win and had been the whole time but not a massive landslide. The literary

digest was still which which had a sample it was a straw poll, it wasn't scientific, people mailed their responses in, but they had millions of responses. They had missed the

1932 election by only two electoral votes.

They had everything right except one state in 1924,

1916, which was an eyelash.

They had got that right.

So they had always been right. So why would you think they wouldn't be right or why would they be so

horribly wrong in 1936? The first notes that come in are from New Haven, Connecticut, right across the border from

...