STRANGE FACTS OF PAST PRESIDENTS PT7

DON’T COUNT YOUR CHICKENS…

Nothing proved that old cliche more than the race between Harry Truman and Thomas Dewey in 1948.  Virtually every poll predicted an overwhelming victory for Dewey.  Life magazine went so far as to publish a picture of Dewey before the election with the title “The Next President,” and the Chicago Tribune, so sure of Dewey’s victory on election night, printed and distributed an early edition with the headline “Dewey Defeats Truman.”

To the nation’s surprise, however, Truman got over two million more votes than Dewey and won the Electoral College vote by 303 to 189.  It wasn’t even close – and Truman had won the biggest upset in U.S. presidential history.

How did it happen?  Truman ran a down-to-earth, aggressive campaign, “giving ‘em hell.”  He appealed to America’s love of the underdog: One woman was quoted as saying she voted for Truman because she felt sorry for him.  As for Dewey, he was perhaps lulled into overconfidence in the last weeks before the election.  Whatever the cause, Truman delighted for years in holding up a copy of that infamous Chicago Tribune headline.