Yep, that's what I believed for many years due to the praise from my parents, grands & relatives etc.
But the more I learned about his social & economic policies, especially as they affected the SOUTH (the south was in the pocket of the democrats then, just as the blacks are now) the more it became apparent that he was pandering to the elite at the expense of the commoner; just like the Ds do now.
However, he gave us the federal soup kitchens (today's welfare) and "make work" (alphabet agencies, mostly) policies that gave the temporary needed relief, but somehow never developed past the "dependent on govt" stage that so many minorities are in today.
The people were grateful for the hand-out, but they never got the hand-up that was truly needed, thanks to restrictive economic policies that the nanny govt "knew best how to create & administer!"
So yes he was a good president - to a point. But like so many "do-gooders", (IMHO), he did some good, but he either had some extremely bad advisers, or he got to believing his own press reports
At any rate, I agree with C4K that the situation is eeriely similar; to the dismay of freedom (political, social, economic) loving Americans.
As to being "light years ahead of the republican idol, Ronald Reagan", well I'll leave that to history, but I have lived thru the Reagan era, and have only read about the "Roosevelt" era - well 'cept for his last 6-7 years; so I do, however, respectfully disagree with this assessment.