No, Jonathan Alter, Joseph R. Biden is not the second coming of Franklin D. Roosevelt. And whatever he does with his stimulus program, it will not be the Second New Deal.

There has not been a newer New Deal since the one FDR created, partly because there has not been a crisis since then big enough to demand it. Nor has there been a personality nearly as big as his. Given the gifts with which God had endowed FDR, he tamed it and brought that personality to heel.