Republican presidential candidate Thomas E. Dewey did have some things going for him in 1944. As the governor of the nation's most populous state, he was a credible candidate. After his prosecution of gangsters and racketeers, his reputation for courage and integrity was unquestioned. His party was back in the hands of experienced, life-long Republican leaders, after the Willkie uprising of 1940.
And yet—how does one go about defeating the man who had put millions to work after the darkest days of the depression—who had presided over the reopening of the nation's banks—the man who was now Commander-in-Chief of our soldiers and sailors in Europe and in the South Pacific? Good news was coming from the battle fronts. The D-Day invasion had been successful, and MacArthur was poised to retake the Philippines.
If Dewey attacked the Commander-in-Chief he would seem to be attacking the national war effort, and indirectly hurting the troops in the field. If Dewey attacked the New Deal he would make a great many enemies, since most Americans firmly favored at least one or two FDR programs.
Dewey had another problem. He was only forty-two years old, and compared with FDR was youthful and inexperienced.
Dewey's first campaign strategy was to present himself to the media as solemn, dignified, and presidential (despite his youth). These efforts were largely unsuccessful, as voters perceived the Republican candidate as aloof, unbending, and boring. Dewey's next media persona was somewhat better-received. He portrayed himself as athletic and energetic, which invited comparisons with the increasingly frail president.
Dewey strove to avoid attacking the popular Roosevelt, but Dewey's aides made free use of photographs that made FDR look time-ravaged and nearly dead. The Republican campaign was also helped by persistent but untrue rumors about FDR's health. One story said FDR had suffered a stroke, while another claimed he was now a permanent resident of a sanitarium.
Franklin Roosevelt's strategy was to ignore Dewey and ignore the campaign, to wrap himself in the mantle of Commander-in-Chief. He sought to limit himself to doing presidential things. Yet by failing to campaign, FDR seemed to prove the Republican's insinuations. If FDR was too weak to campaign, how could he hope to be an active president for four long additional years?
Two months before election day, Roosevelt came out fighting. In a truly energetic speech delivered to a Teamsters conclave in Washington, FDR had the audience alternately angry, hopeful, laughing, and cheering. With a deadpan expression on his face, Roosevelt told his audience:
"The Republican leaders have not been content to make personal attacks on me—or my wife—or my sons—they now include my little dog, Fala." The president related that a Republican member of Congress had started the unfounded rumor that on a visit to Alaska, Roosevelt forgot his Scottish terrier Fala, and sent a destroyer back to fetch the pooch, at an enormous cost to the taxpayers. Roosevelt added that when Fala heard about the allegations, "his Scotch soul was furious. He has not been the same dog since."
Roosevelt went on to use humor and sarcasm to attack Dewey. Dewey wasted no time in counter-attacking, saying of Roosevelt, "He has asked for it. Now here it is." Dewey attacked the waste of the New Deal, and even accused Roosevelt of causing the deaths of American servicemen because he had not prepared the country adequately for war. Now the voters stopped thinking Dewey was boring. Unfortunately for Dewey, voters did not appreciate attacks on the president.
One last issue gave Republicans a chance to attack the Democrats. This was the great influence wielded over the Democratic campaign by the CIO's Political Action Committee, or PAC. This was before "PAC" was a household word, and in fact the CIO's committee was the first of its kind. Republicans alleged that the CIO was dominated by Communists, and that the Roosevelt campaign was dominated by the CIO PAC. Therefore, albeit indirectly, the Communists dominated FDR's campaign.
In the end, Dewey failed at what may have been an impossible task: unseating a popular three-term president who was apparently doing a good job of running the nation's war effort. For what it is worth, Dewey was the strongest of the four candidates who opposed FDR for president. On the other hand, Hoover, Landon, and Willkie were hardly powerful contenders! Dewey won 99 electoral votes to Roosevelt's 432, and won 22.0 million votes to Roosevelt's 25.6 million.
Dewey was right about one thing. Roosevelt's heath was not good in 1944. Early in 1945 Roosevelt died, putting an apparently mediocre vice-president into the presidency. Dewey spent three years looking forward to the 1948 race, when he expected to defeat the political hack (as Dewey saw him) from Missouri.
| © 1999 by Stephen Cresswell |