Thomas Dewey

I was reading an article about Thomas Dewey who ran for president against FDR in 1944 and again against Truman in 1948. That’s the one with the famous picture of Truman holding up the “Dewey Defeats Truman” newspaper. If you don’t know much about it Truman won when everyone thought Dewey would win. Dewey didn’t campaign very hard he just sat back and tried very hard not to do anything to cost him votes. The Louisville paper summed up his campaign like this:

No presidential candidate in the future will be so inept that four of his major speeches can be boiled down to these historic four sentences: Agriculture is important. Our rivers are full of fish. You cannot have freedom without liberty. Our future lies ahead.

I find that amusing.

Leave a Reply