I'm fully cognizant of conventional wisdom, Marv. However, I kinda like to look beyond that. In this case, the further look doesn't require a whole lot more than a normal grasp upon common sense.
Hoover (and the rest of his party)'s ideas were failing about as miserably as failing can get. 'Standing pat' died with Marc Hanna but the GOP, as now, was intent on dragging its carcass as long as it possibly could. With the economy in a heap and revolution in the air, the confidance of the American people in capitalism (or whatever label would have been given to the policies that they felt put them in the positions they were in) was just about spent and was not going to sit through four more years of "aw, it's ok for everyone else because I'm doing just fine"
Incredibly, Hoover himself had lost a small fortune along with everyone else that went down with the Depression. The guy took a huge personal loss and still couldnt wrap his head around the fact that there was a serious problem. Goes to show that even a guy as bright, well-intentioned, and personally experienced as Hoover can still be a fuckup sometimes.
W Bush, however, has none of those charecteristics and fucked up nearly everything he's done the last 7 years.
On Wilson - As a human being, Wilson ranks near the very bottom. As a president, he certainly did no worse than the bottom-5 I already listed (Nixon, W, Buchanan, LBJ, Hoover).