GREAT UPSET OF '48
GREAT UPSET OF '48
WETA 'GREAT UPSET OF '48" IN 21.19.30-A Journalist who covered the 1948 Presidential Campaign discusses the outcome, THOMAS DEWEY losing a big lead in the POLLS to HARRY TRUMAN. Says the handicapping strategies of the day were rudimentary and not as sophisticated as exit polls today. Discusses how the press was fooled to think that DEWEY would win. Recalls the episode where DEWEY alienated union voters after his campaign train lurched into a crowd and DEWEY made an offhand remark that the engineer must have been a lunatic. Recalls some combative moments between HENRY WALLACE and the press including H.L. MENCKEN. 21.26.18-Discusses the short-lived Progressive Party founded by HENRY WALLACE, and the influence of Communists in the party. Discusses later movements by the Democratic Party to aggressively separate themselves from COMMUNISM and any slight taint of Communism. Discusses the defeat of DEWEY and electoral politics generally, says that a stronger REPUBLICAN candidate would have defeated HARRY TRUMAN in 1948. Discusses the lasting impact of Truman's victory, including the Korean war, NATO, and other policies that Truman led. Discussion of TRUMAN benefitting from postwar prosperity and the New Deal. Discusses the impact on American FOREIGN POLICY of the TRUMAN ADMINISTRATION. 21.36.10-Discussion of the BERLIN BLOCKADE and escalation of the COLD WAR during the 1948 campaign and during Truman's administration. Discussion of 1948 as the first year of TELEVISION in the American political process, but the journalist says that TELEVISION in 1948 was rather weak and didn't have great impact. 21.39.35--OUT