The H-bomb – the comparison to Herbert Hoover – has been dropped several times this election season:

Accusations of Hooverism featured in this year’s presidential race. Republican candidate Sen. John McCain repeatedly criticized the tax plans of his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, by contending in a stump speech: “The last president to raise taxes and restrict trade in a bad economy as Sen. Obama proposes was Herbert Hoover. That didn’t turn out too well.”

Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada contrasted comments from Sen. McCain (“the fundamentals of our economy are strong”) with those of Hoover after the Crash (“The fundamental business of the country…is on a sound and prosperous basis.”)

Apparently it’s spread outside of the US too, with Canadian PM Stephen Harper also suffering the comparison.

Now the fans of Herbert Hoover are biting back. Why so serious? Sure, his name has become synonymous with the Great Depression (by virtue of his holding office during the crash of 1929 and epic economic fail that followed), and you could construct a “Hoover Indicator” of economic fail by counting the number of times his name appears in the media, but it could be worse. Think of J. Edgar Hoover – his name is pretty much synonymous with crossdressing, COINTELPRO and cover-ups. On that “Hoover Indicator,” it’s Herbert for the win.

WSJ has an excellent piece today where they let the Herbert Hoover Fan Club make their case, though certain parts of the Haterade like the xenophobic Smoot-Hawley tarriff, and his habit of going into denial instead of screaming EVERYBODY PANIC, are allowed to stand. And here’s a LOL quote, Hoover was so stimulus-fanatical that FDR accused him of being red:

When [the Depression] came, 11 months after he was elected president in 1928, Hoover created the Reconstruction Finance Corp. to push credit into banks, and arranged $300 million of loans to states to distribute aid.

And far from being a free-market stickler, Hoover instituted a public-works program that at the time was the largest ever, including the creation of 360 public buildings. The program prompted accusations from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s camp during the 1932 election campaign that Hoover was “leading the country down the path to socialism.”

And he had a dog, just like Nixon with Checkers. Anyone else want to put a “Don’t Blame Me, I Voted For Herbert Hoover” bumper sticker on their car?