As Vice President, Harry Truman had succeeded to the
presidency at the death of Franklin Roosevelt. Now, he was running for a term
of his own, and everyone agreed that the odds were against him.
2 After all, the Democrats had been in power for
sixteen years. The Republicans had been in the wilderness long enough. It was
their time. And, that’s exactly what most of the pollsters and political
pundits were expecting. Unfortunately, they had left the Doodle’s and Clayton’s
of America out of their calculations.
3 “Truman is NOT Roosevelt!” Doodle exclaimed. “Yeah,
but he’s a Democrat,” Clayton reminded her. “My family has always voted for the
Democrats, and I don’t intend to start voting Republican now,” he finished.
“Well, he’s not half the man that Roosevelt was, but he is better than Dewey
and the Republicans,” Doodle agreed.
4 Then, on November 2, like many of their fellow
citizens, they went to their polling place and marked their ballots for Harry
Truman. The following day, the pundits and pollsters were wondering what had
happened; but Clayton and Doodle knew exactly what had happened.
5 The “professionals” had placed much too high of a
premium on everyone’s personal dislike of Truman. They had also grossly
underestimated the loyalty of Democrats, and the attachment of Roosevelt’s
voters to his policies and legacy. “Dewey never had a chance,” Clayton mumbled
as he read the paper that evening.
6 Nevertheless, although they could not have foreseen
it at the time, in just four years, they would both be ready to vote for a
Republican. Like many of their fellow countrymen, Clayton and Doodle would come
to dislike many of the decisions that Truman would make as president.
7 More importantly, in 1952, the Republicans would have the good sense to nominate one of the men who had led them through the perils of World War II, General Dwight Eisenhower. Thus, in the span of just four years, Clayton and Doodle would be transformed from “Yellow Dog” Democrats into truly independent voters.
No comments:
Post a Comment