The speech that tore the convention apart came from Hubert Humphrey, the mayor of Minneapolis. In 1947, Congressman Richard Nixon, the master politician of the age, said that nothing would change in this country with respect to race until "the Democrats bite the bullet on Jim Crow." In his speech Humphrey chewed through the bullet. Gov. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina led a walkout of the southern states, and Thurmond ran for president on the ticket of the States' Rights Party, aka the Dixiecrats.
Truman delivered his acceptance speech in the middle of the night, much like McGovern did 24 years later. The speech was a real snore, and in the middle he muttered, "I can't read this stuff." (People still swear that Truman didn't say "stuff.") He then took off on a rhetorical rant. He announced he would call the Republican dominated Congress into special session demanding that it pass his legislation. Truman knew that nothing would be done, which was just want he wanted. He spent the rest of the campaign railing against the "do nothing Congress."
The Republicans put up Gov. Thomas Dewey of New York for the second time, with Gov. Earl Warren of California as his running mate. Dewey's lead was so great in the polls that the pollsters stopped their polling.
To make things more complicated, former Vice President Henry Wallace of Minnesota ran for president on the ticket of the Progressive Party. Wallace had avid communist backing at the time.
Truman decided to make a whistle stop tour by rail. At the first stops, there were only a few people in the crowd, but Truman gave a give-em-hell speech as though the place were packed.
At one stop in Ohio, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, TR's daughter, heard Truman speak, saw the crowd's reaction and grew alarmed. Up to this point, Dewey had campaigned on generalities and platitudes while trying to protect his lead.
Alice had one of the best brains in the party. She could rattle off the names of most of the state and county Republican chairs with a list of their strengths and weaknesses.
Alice never learned how to drive, so her chauffer drove her home. She got on the horn to RNC headquarters and told the party brass, "Get Dewey a message and get him on message now, or we'll lose this thing!"
The party brass looked at the polling and decided she was mistaken. History falls on such minor moments.
Truman went to bed thinking he might have lost but woke up refreshed the next morning as a winner. He grabbed a newspaper with the headline "Dewey Defeats Truman" and had himself photographed with it. On the radio he did a dead-on impersonation of H. V. Kaltenborn, the radio analyst who spent the previous evening telling his audience that Dewey's victorious votes would arrive within a few minutes.
Truman had the time of his life. Then came Korea.
Wow that’s a piece of history very very few know.
So she saw that he wise giving powerful speeches on this rail tour?
I assume the crowds were much much bigger bite the end.
Strong taking the South must have hurt Dewey alot.
Do I have no idea who won the South back then regularly
Well covered recall including HST’s imitation of HV Kaltenborn What you missed though, was The Chicago Tribune’s owner Col McCormick attacking what was called the “Me too Republicans”
THAT is a super post! Is it quoted from a book, one you’ve written perhaps?
Donaldus Magnus is, imho, an avid student of the 1948 election. His rallies closely resemble Truman’s whistle stops, and he’s as plain spoken as Truman, with the same common touch. He’s doing it again, and the Dems do not get it.
I thought David McCullough said that ‘48 was a landslide. I’ll have to re-check. He did get a legislative majority.