Truman Defeats Dewey
Originally posted by gm_1787 at Truman Defeats Dewey
Whistle Stop: How 31,000 Miles of Train Travel, 352 Speeches, and a Little Midwest Gumption Saved the Presidency of Harry Truman is Philip White’s second book. His first, Our Supreme Task, focused on Winston Churchill’s 1946 Iron Curtain Speech. Whistle Stop is a compelling and detailed recounting of Harry Truman's winning campaign.
In the summer of 1948 Truman’s chances for election seemed remote. FDR’s sons and Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) wanted to draft Dwight Eisenhower to replace Truman as the Democratic Presidential candidate. Truman was unpopular in the south due to his ambitious civil rights agenda, had alienated labor with a tough crackdown on the strikes of 1946 and 1947 and had lost the support of left-leaning Democrats who rallied to Henry Wallace's Progressive Party. The Republicans took control of both houses of Congress in the 1946 mid-term elections and looked poised to win the Presidential election for the first time since 1928. The large, influential papers - especially the Chicago Tribune, which Truman called the worst paper in the nation - were against the President.
The Republicans, after also failing to draft Eisenhower as their candidate, nominated Thomas Dewey, the New York Governor and a prominent member of the eastern establishment. After he came just two million votes short of FDR's total in 1944, the GOP thought that Dewey was sure to win this time, particularly with popular Governor of California Earl Warren as his running mate.
What makes White’s book stand out is his focus on the work of the Democratic National Committee’s Research Division. In modern campaigns, information is ubiquitous and easily obtained. But, in 1948 compiling the information necessary to localize a speech was tedious work. Also, getting the information to the candidate was a challenge. White details how Truman’s campaign team overcame these difficulties and how Truman’s resilience and stubbornness would not allow him to quit.
The technology may have changed over the past six decades, but some issues sound familiar:
· In what may have been a Presidential campaign first, Truman compared Dewey’s mustache to Hitler and likened him to the German dictator as a fascist tool.
· Truman had to deal with the original "Do Nothing Congress." In a political gamble, Truman called a special session in order to expose the intent of his Republican opponents. Predictably, it failed to pass a single significant bill.
· To circumvent the ‘Do Nothing’ Congress Truman issued an Executive Order desegregating the military. This action and Truman's second Executive Order of July 1948, which ended discrimination for federal employees, led to a second split in Truman's party. Strom Thurmond's States' Rights Democratic Party (Dixiecrats) got 39 electoral votes from 4 states - AL, LA, MS and SC. So much for what was thought to be a "solid" Democratic south.
All of the pollsters predicted that Dewey would win the White House. The Roper poll even stopped in September because they believed a Dewey victory was a foregone conclusion. Dewey was so confident of winning he largely ignored Truman’s campaign rhetoric and did not respond to Truman’s tenacity until it was too late.
Overall, Whistle Stop is an excellent book for anyone interested in a new take on a great, and unlikely, election story.
Whistle Stop: How 31,000 Miles of Train Travel, 352 Speeches, and a Little Midwest Gumption Saved the Presidency of Harry Truman is Philip White’s second book. His first, Our Supreme Task, focused on Winston Churchill’s 1946 Iron Curtain Speech. Whistle Stop is a compelling and detailed recounting of Harry Truman's winning campaign.
In the summer of 1948 Truman’s chances for election seemed remote. FDR’s sons and Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) wanted to draft Dwight Eisenhower to replace Truman as the Democratic Presidential candidate. Truman was unpopular in the south due to his ambitious civil rights agenda, had alienated labor with a tough crackdown on the strikes of 1946 and 1947 and had lost the support of left-leaning Democrats who rallied to Henry Wallace's Progressive Party. The Republicans took control of both houses of Congress in the 1946 mid-term elections and looked poised to win the Presidential election for the first time since 1928. The large, influential papers - especially the Chicago Tribune, which Truman called the worst paper in the nation - were against the President.
The Republicans, after also failing to draft Eisenhower as their candidate, nominated Thomas Dewey, the New York Governor and a prominent member of the eastern establishment. After he came just two million votes short of FDR's total in 1944, the GOP thought that Dewey was sure to win this time, particularly with popular Governor of California Earl Warren as his running mate.
What makes White’s book stand out is his focus on the work of the Democratic National Committee’s Research Division. In modern campaigns, information is ubiquitous and easily obtained. But, in 1948 compiling the information necessary to localize a speech was tedious work. Also, getting the information to the candidate was a challenge. White details how Truman’s campaign team overcame these difficulties and how Truman’s resilience and stubbornness would not allow him to quit.
The technology may have changed over the past six decades, but some issues sound familiar:
· In what may have been a Presidential campaign first, Truman compared Dewey’s mustache to Hitler and likened him to the German dictator as a fascist tool.
· Truman had to deal with the original "Do Nothing Congress." In a political gamble, Truman called a special session in order to expose the intent of his Republican opponents. Predictably, it failed to pass a single significant bill.
· To circumvent the ‘Do Nothing’ Congress Truman issued an Executive Order desegregating the military. This action and Truman's second Executive Order of July 1948, which ended discrimination for federal employees, led to a second split in Truman's party. Strom Thurmond's States' Rights Democratic Party (Dixiecrats) got 39 electoral votes from 4 states - AL, LA, MS and SC. So much for what was thought to be a "solid" Democratic south.
All of the pollsters predicted that Dewey would win the White House. The Roper poll even stopped in September because they believed a Dewey victory was a foregone conclusion. Dewey was so confident of winning he largely ignored Truman’s campaign rhetoric and did not respond to Truman’s tenacity until it was too late.
Overall, Whistle Stop is an excellent book for anyone interested in a new take on a great, and unlikely, election story.