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although I wouldn't yet admit that it was a necessary way to do it.
I said this in my book on the chapter on his mentality and I mean it very sincerely. Most of the people who thought they had a commitment from Roosevelt were people who were so wrought up over their own ideas that they went in with their own ideas, their own plans, their own programs and acted as though there were no others, as though there was no other side to the picture, as though there were no alternatives. They put the thing before Roosevelt in its most glowing and laudable terms. Depending on their capacity to interest him or bore him they interested him and got him involved in it. He would say, “Yes, that's good. He's a good man. That's a good way to do it. That's fine.” Or he would get so bored that he would say, “Yeah, yeah,” thinking about something else. I have known him to think of something else all through a very serious presentation of the subject. I got to the point where I could almost tell where he was not paying attention to the subject, although he'd be looking right at the person speaking. I could tell by the expression on his face and in his eyes that he wasn't following at all, the conversation was literally going in one ear and out the other.
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