Wikipedia on Herbert Hoover: he didn't fail for lack of bailing

I used to think of him as a straight-up failure that left things a mess until Roosevelt came along and fixed everything. There's more to it that that.

"...Years later, libertarians argued that Hoover's economics were statist. Franklin D. Roosevelt blasted the Republican incumbent for spending and taxing too much, increasing national debt, raising tariffs and blocking trade, as well as placing millions on the dole of the government. Roosevelt attacked Hoover for "reckless and extravagant" spending, of thinking "that we ought to center control of everything in Washington as rapidly as possible," and of leading "the greatest spending administration in peacetime in all of history." Roosevelt's running mate, John Nance Garner, accused the Republican of "leading the country down the path of socialism".

And later:

Even so, New Dealer Rexford Tugwell[27] later remarked that although no one would say so at the time, "practically the whole New Deal was extrapolated from programs that Hoover started."