The Election of 1948

I'm in the process of reading the book, "Presidential Campaigns",
by Paul F. Boller, Jr.

I reached the chapter on 1948 and finished it thinking of that
old saying: The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Most of you know the facts of the campaign, but I found these great
lines of Truman's concerning the opposition. Dewey had been called
the winner by all of the media of the day by a huge margin. Truman
decided to forget all about the media and go on a tour to boost his
spirits. Mr. Boller writes: He took a belligerent line: the
republican Congress is "the worst in my memory" and is more interested
in "the welfare of the better classes" than in the welfare of the
ordinary people. The crowds loved it. They encouraged him to keep
laying it on the republicans.

During the official campaign, he kept up his tours. He called the
Congress the "worst in history", assailed the "gluttons of privilege"
dominating the GOP, called the republicans a "bunch of old mossbacks"
and "bloodsuckers with offices in Wall Street".

During the Democratic convention, there was the general feeling that
they were backing a loser and there were many defections from the
party. Sound familiar? Truman never let the defections get to him.
He acted cocksure and stated that he and his running mate Barkley
would "win this election and make the Republicans like it, don't you
forget that. We'll do it because it we're right and they are wrong".

Of course Truman was in the incumbent president at that time, but
he was labeled a loser by all the media and declared a hopeless loser
by everyone except himself. Maybe Kerry could pull this off is
keeps swinging in a fearless, confident manner and uses plain
talk to speak his mind.

On his final day of campaigning Truman spoke about the polls that
put him well behind Dewey. He said, "The smart boys say we can't
win. They tried to bluff us with a propaganda blitz, but we called
their bluff, we told the people the truth. And the people are with
us".

Maybe there is hope.