Episode 1886
Harry S. Truman 1948 presidential campaign
Mon, 2022-Jul-04 00:08 UTC
Length - 4:40
Direct Link
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The featured article for Monday, 4 July 2022 is Harry S. Truman 1948 presidential campaign.
In 1948 Harry S. Truman and Alben W. Barkley were elected president and vice president of the United States. They defeated Republican presidential nominee Thomas E. Dewey and vice-presidential nominee Earl Warren. Truman, a Democrat and vice president under Franklin D. Roosevelt, had ascended to the presidency upon Roosevelt's death in 1945. He announced his candidacy for election on March 8, 1948. Unchallenged by any major nominee in the Democratic primaries, he won almost all of them easily; however, many Democrats like James Roosevelt opposed his candidacy and urged former Chief of Staff of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower to run instead.
Truman wanted U. S. Supreme Court Associate Justice William O. Douglas to be his running mate. Douglas declined, claiming a lack of political experience. His friend Thomas Gardiner Corcoran had suggested him not to be a "number two man to a number two man". The 1948 Democratic National Convention convened at the Philadelphia Convention Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from July 12 to July 15. A keynote address was delivered by Senator Barkley of Kentucky, which energized the delegates and impressed Truman, who then selected Barkley as his running mate. When the convention adopted Truman's civil rights plank in a close vote of 651+1⁄2 to 582+1⁄2, many Southern delegates bolted the convention. Strom Thurmond, the governor of South Carolina, led a walkout of a large group of delegates from Mississippi and Alabama. After the order was restored, a roll call vote gave Truman a majority of delegates to be the nominee; Barkley was nominated the vice-presidential candidate by acclamation.
During the campaign Truman focused mostly on blaming the Republican-controlled Congress for not passing his legislation. He called it a "do-nothing Congress". The Progressive Party nominated Henry A. Wallace, a former Democratic vice president, to run against Truman. Governor Thurmond also ran against Truman as a Dixiecrat, campaigning for states' rights. With a split of the Democratic Party, most of the polls and political writers predicted victory for Dewey, giving Truman little chance. In early September Truman conducted various whistle-stop tours across the nation covering over 21,928 miles (35,290 km) on Ferdinand Magellan. Of all the speeches he gave during his whistle-stop tour, only about seventy were broadcast on the radio even locally, while twenty were heard nationally.
During the final days of the campaign, the Truman campaign released a film titled The Truman Story using existing newsreel footage of the whistle-stop tour. Although he received some endorsements, including that of Screen Actors Guild president Ronald Reagan, most of the broadcasting companies were sure of Dewey's victory. Initially leading in the popular vote, Truman defeated Dewey, receiving 303 electoral votes to Dewey's 189 and Thurmond's 39. Before the results were released, an early edition of the Chicago Daily Tribune had printed the headline "Dewey Defeats Truman", boldly anticipating Dewey's victory. Time magazine later considered Truman's photograph, taken on November 4, showing him holding the Chicago Daily Tribune with the erroneous headline as the "greatest photograph ever made of a politician celebrating victory". His direct appeal to middle-class Americans earned him the vote of traditional Republican farmers. Truman and Barkley were inaugurated on January 20, 1949. Truman's 1948 campaign and the election are most remembered for the failure of polls and Truman's upset victory.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:08 UTC on Monday, 4 July 2022.
For the full current version of the article, see Harry S. Truman 1948 presidential campaign on Wikipedia.
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This has been Nicole Standard. Thank you for listening to featured Wiki of the Day.
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