Looking young, suave, and debonair in traditional ‘30s male attire and spectacles with a cigarette stemming from a holder in his mouth, the front cover of this week’s TIME depicts president-elect Barack Obama as “the new Franklin Delano Roosevelt.” To me, the cover is haunting because aside from color mixed with black and white, and the obvious racial difference, Barack Obama practically channels the photo shown of FDR.

In an interview with MSNBC’s Morning Joe, the spokesman for TIME Magazine said the reason for calling Barack Obama the new FDR is because he may have “the ability to forge a liberal majority, not unlike FDR did.” Wow, those are some pretty big shoes to fill. 

When FDR won the presidential election in 1932 it was during the Great Depression. Almost all banks were closed and there were over 13 million unemployed. 

President Roosevelt’s solution was to implement social security, raise taxes on the wealthy, offer work programs, and control the banks. How ironic that in January, we will have another Democratic President in office during our current economic crisis—which has been compared to the Great Depression.

Will Barack Obama save the American people as FDR did? Only time will tell. Meanwhile, I’ll just continue to hope for the changes he promised throughout his campaign.