Obama and FDR: Department of intriguing coincidences

FDR and Obama both went to the same schools, sort of. FDR graduated from Harvard College and attended but didn't quite finish up at Columbia Law School, dropping out after he passed the New York bar exam (as Arthur Schlesinger relates in his "The Age of Roosevelt"). Obama got his undergraduate degree from Columbia and doctor of jurisprudence degree with honors from Harvard Law.

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Roosevelt's home was in Hyde Park, N.Y. Obama's is in Hyde Park in Chicago.

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FDR appointed Joseph Kennedy, father of JFK, as ambassador to the U.K. Obama is reportedly considering naming Caroline Kennedy, JFK's daughter, to the Court of St. James's.

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Columnist Walter Lippmann on FDR (before his first election): "He is a pleasant man who, without any important qualifications for the office, would very much like to be President."

Columnist Charles Krauthammer on Obama (before his election): "Has there ever been a presidential nominee with a wider gap between his estimation of himself and the sum total of his lifetime achievements?"