Just because everyone thinks it, doesn’t make it so
Some time ago there was an election coming up. The president was not popular and not well liked. So much so that he asked a famous war general to run instead of him (and was turned down) and so much so that many people in his own party did not want to nominate him. A conservative bloc walked out of the convention and selected their own candidate who was listed on the ballot from that party in four states and winning those states. Further a liberal bloc formed their own party and nominated a former vice president as their own candidate and while they did not win any states, they diverted an equal number of votes from the president as did the conservative faction.
Additionally, the other party’s candidate was a popular New York State Governor, and still further none of the major newspapers expected the president to win, so they did not cover his campaign. Also, the president had so little money that he had to put his wife on the government payroll to make ends meet so campaigning was a hardship with a much smaller organization than he needed. Everyone who was anyone thought this election was a slam dunk and the president would be defeated.
Everyone except the president! He thought he was doing a great job and felt it was his duty to run and his responsibility to campaign. What he did was quite simple and probably the last “small time” presidential campaign. He rented a train and went to as many towns as possible, stopping, making a speech from the back of the train and then going to the next town – sometimes making more than a dozen “whistle stops” in a day.
In today’s political-speak his campaign method might be considered a stealth campaign. No one knew what he was doing except the people at the train stops who looked at the plain talking plain looking man but they saw a giant because of this status as President of the United States and possibly because of some of his bold accomplishments. He did not rest on his laurels. He did not have a defeatist demeanor. He was not a whiner or complainer, but had an upbeat attitude and people felt good hearing him speak. He however, had an easy target knocking a “do-nothing” Congress which it seems people always liked to do. He also never mentioned his opponent, not wanting to make him appear formidable.
He did not shirk from getting the job done. He had the inner confidence to know that if he did the work while the others dawdled he would prevail, and he prevailed. On election night the early newspaper headlines incorrectly read that “Dewey Defeated Truman.” Harry Truman was elected to his own term as president having originally succeeded to the Presidency when Franklin Roosevelt died.
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