ELECTION #46, 1968. The NASTY-METER is 6.

QUOTE from Richard Nixon after losing the California governor's race in 1962: "I say categorically I have no comtemplation at all of being the candidate for anything in 1964, 1966, 1968, or 1972....Anybody who thinks that I could be a candidate for anything in any year is off his rocker."

The war in Vietnam and the resulting unrest in the nation had President Johnson on the ropes and he decided to hang it up and not run. He made the announcement on March 31, 1968.

The CANDIDATES in 1968.

REPUBLICAN: RICHARD NIXON.

Even though Nixon had told the press in 1962, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore" he could not stay away from politics. After seeing Johnson pulverize Goldwater Nixon saw an opening and he seized it. He was looking quite attractive to the moderate Republicans so he started fund-raising; put together a loyal staff, which included H.R. Haldeman, John Erlichman, and John Mitchell; and he found advisors who would help make over his image. He was nominated on the first ballot in August of 1968. But his biggest mistake was choosing Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew as his running mate. He was handsome but not very bright who had far too big a mouth.

DEMOCRAT: HUBERT HUMPHREY.

With Johnson not running there were three candidates who were vying for the nomination: Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota threw his hat in the ring first as an antiwar candidate; after Johnson pulled out Senator Bobby Kennedy threw his hat in the ring as another antiwar candidate; and Johnson's anointed successor was Vice-president Hubert Humphrey. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles after he had won the California primary. At the Chicago convention Humphrey was nominated while protesters rioted in the streets. He chose Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine as his VP running mate.

The CAMPAIGN in 1968.

Nixon surrounded himself with a great group of advisors. Their job was to remake Nixon and keep him from doing stupid stuff. Their plan was: no more debating; no more open press conferences where Nixon could put his foot in his mouth; frequent rests so he wouldn't get exhausted; and scripted TV shows where "ordinary citizens" (all Nixon supporters) lobbed him him easy questions. Nixon started the campaign with a twenty point lead. He had strong support from blue-collar workers. Nixon became the law-and-order candidate of the "Silent Majority" - the country's long-suffering working people who were fed up with hippies and rioting students and blacks and bra-burning feminists.

Humphrey started the campaign being hated by the blue-collar workers and the antiwar protesters. His campaign was short of cash as the Democratic fat cats didn't want to contribute to a lost cause. Nixon was hard to get at - he was isolated in TV studios and flying around the country in his private jet. And Humphrey talked too much. He would put people to sleep when answering questions. One time he took eleven minutes to answer a question - the host muttered off-camera, "What the hell did I ask this guy, I forgot."

By September the race began to tighten. Nixon's vague answers to ending the war and his vagueness on most other issues began to wear badly on a public seeking answers. And third party candidate George Wallace of Alabama was making an impact on Nixon's support. Also, VP candidate Spiro Agnew wasn't much help to Nixon. He was picked because he had been a strong law-and-order governor of Maryland. But his loose mouth wasn't exactly an asset. He made comments like this: On a flight to Hawaii a Japanese reporter was sleeping - Agnew said, "What's wrong with that fat Jap?" And after visiting a ghetto he said, "when you've seen one city slum, you've seen 'em all," And he was an equal opportunity offender - he referred to Polish-Americans as "Polacks." The Democrats used this to make a TV commercial that simply showed the words "SPIRO AGNEW FOR VICE PRESIDENT," followed by thirty seconds of raucous laughter.

Then came the October surprise. On Halloween night President Johnson announced that North Vietnam had agreed to begin peace negotiations if we would quit bombing. Suddenly, Humphrey went ahead in the polls convincing many people that with peace possible let's not change the line of succession. Humphrey's lead didn't hold when South Vietnam President Nguyen Van Thieu said his country would not participate in the peace talks and negotiations broke down. It was unfortunate for Humphrey.

The WINNER was RICHARD NIXON and he became the 37th president of the United States.

Nixon got 31,785,480 popular and 301 electoral.

Humphrey got 31,275,166 popular and 191 electoral.

Nixon had made one of the most extraordinary political comebacks in our history. In his victory speech he said the theme of his administration would be "Bring Us Together."

ELECTION #45, 1964. The NASTY-METER hits 10+.

QUOTE from Lyndon Johnson during the 1964 campaign: "We can't let Goldwater and the Red Chinese both get the bomb at the same time. Then the shit will really hit the fan."

The campaign in 1964 was one of the dirtiest and nastiest campaigns in our history. It ranks right up there with the 1928 campaign between Al Smith and Herbert Hoover. (I personally feel this 1964 race was worse than 1928.)

The CANDIDATES in 1964.

DEMOCRAT: LYNDON JOHNSON.

Johnson had spent twenty years in Congress as a member of the House and as a senator. He knew the ins-and-outs of how Congress worked - in other words he knew how to get things done. Johnson's talkative, folksy, back-slapping Texas manner hid an extraordinary desire for power and an intimate knowledge of how to get it. He chose Hubert Humphrey as his VP mate. (He didn't treat Hunphrey very nice. When he chose Humphrey for VP, he said to him, "If you didn't know you were going to be VP a month ago, you're too dumb to have the office.")

REPUBLICAN: BARRY GOLDWATER.

Goldwater was 55, from Arizona, and the son of a Jewish father and Presbyterian mother, a WWII pilot, had worked in the family's department store, and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1952. He was ultra-conservative. He made the comment that "Sometimes I think this country would be better off if we could just saw off the Eastern liberal seaboard and let it float out to sea." Republicans like Ike and Nixon didn't agree with this but in 1964 the Republican Party was controlled by untra-conservatives - and Goldwater was the result. His VP choice was William Miller, a complete unknown who was also an ultra-conservative. He was a congressman from upstate New York.

The CAMPAIGN in 1964.

Johnson and the Democratic Party were ready to destroy Goldwater - and they did. What follows is a summary of how they did it.

- Their campaign strategy was to portray Goldwater as "ridiculous and a little scary, trigger-happy, a bomb-thrower.. and to keep the fear of Goldwater as unstable, impulsive, and reckless in the public's mind." Johnson didn't waste any time implementing the strategy.

- At campaign stops he would point to the sky and say that JFK's spirit was "there in heaven
watching us." Who would the martyred JFK, and this audience, like to see in the White House - Johnson or Goldwater?" "Which man's thumb do you want to be close to the button...and which man do you want to reach over and pick up that hotline when they say, 'Moscow calling?'"

- As the campaign heated up Johnson instructed his staff to influence the press in whatever way they could ("reporters are puppets," he told them). One way they did that was to get a financial columnist named Sylvia Porter to write two columns about how a Goldwater victory would be bad for America's economy and would have a huge negative impact on the stock market. Newsweek called him "the fastest gun" and Life Magazine said he was man of "one-sentence solutions." It was reported that a nationwide survey of American psychiatrists found that a sizable percentage thought Goldwater was unfit to serve as president because he suffered from clinical paranoia.

- And Goldwater himself helped Johnson win a landslide victory by making stupid statements like these:
---"Let's lob one into the Kremlin and put it right into the men's room."
---"All men are created equal at the instant of birth...but from then on, that's the end of equality."(Not exactly a good way to get black votes.)
--- And Goldwater struck fear at white Americans' fear of black criminals by saying this: "I don't have to quote the statistics to you. You know. Every wife and mother-yes, every woman and girl knows what I mean." (Is this another way to win black votes? Of course, he didn't have to worry about black votes because most of them couldn't vote in 1964.)
---And then this stupid statement: "You know, I haven't got a really first-class brain."
---Probably the most famous and effective campaign ad was run on September 7, 1964. The TV showed a little blonde girl walking through a field. She stops to pick up a daisy and begins pulling off the petals and counting in a high innocent voice, "1...2...3...4.." As she finishes, a military voice begins a countdown: "10...9...8...7...6.." As the counting reaches zero, the little girl looks up, startled. You stare into her frozen face and ...a huge mushroom cloud explodes, filling the screen. Over the mushroom cloud, Lyndon Johnson's voice says, "
"These are the stakes. To make a world in which all of God's children can live, or to go into the dark. We must love each other, or we must die."The Democrats only paid to air it once, but much to their delight it was run over and over by the networks. Talk about free exposure - and it drove home the message. Perhaps the ad was overkill. Yet no one who saw it could ever forget its stark simplicity.
---Other media dirty tricks pulled by the Johnson team were writing books about Goldwater:
some examples were "Barry Goldwater:Extremist of the Right" and "The Case Against Barry."
Another one was the Goldwater joke book entitled "You Can Die Laughing." and there was a children's coloring book in which kids could color pictures of Goldwater dressed in Ku Klux Klan robes.
Another tactic was to write letters to columnist Ann Landers under the guise of ordinary people who were terrified of Goldwater becoming president.


Goldwater and Repubicans fought back.

The Republcnas weren't afraid to use the media to get their message out.

His campaign produced a vulgar book entitled "A Texan Looks at Lyndon: A Study in Illegitimate Power." The book brought together all the nasty stories about Johnson using a whole bunch of free-swinging slurs. The author said Johnson was guilty of all types of vote buying and sleazy politicking, even worse, he was responsible for the murder of several business associates and even the assassination of JFK. In the first year of its publication, the book supposedly outsold the Bible in the state of Texas.

The National Republican Committee planted numerous newspaper articles wondering how Johnson had amassed a personal fortune of ten to fourteen million dollars during a lifetime of public service.
Republican ads in Western newspapers spread rumors that Johnson had kidney cancer and speculated how long he had to live.
The Opinion Research Poll reported in October that Goldwater was rapidly gaining on Johnson (it wasn't true). It was proved that the Opinion Research Group was a part of Goldwater campaign.

The Goldwater committee made up a fake film group known as "Mothers for a Moral America." They made a film called "Choices", which showed Americans that they had a choice between good and evil. On the good positive side they showed conservative kids having good clean fun with the American flag flying high, the Statue of Liberty gleaming in the sun and Barry Goldwater giving inspiring patriotic speeches.
The bad negative side showed people dancing the TWIST, people reading pornography, women in topless bathing suits, black kids dancing and throwing rocks while rioting, and a speeding Lincoln Continental where the driver was throwing empty beer cans out the window (this was a knock at LBJ who used to throw beer cans out his car window when driving at his ranch in Texas.

The film ended with the question, "Which side would you choose? Tough call? Mothers for a Moral America.

Two conflicting bumper sticker slogans of that time say it all about this 1964 campaign.

GOLDWATER SUPPORTER: "In your heart you know he's right."

JOHNSON SUPPORTER: "In your heart you know he's nuts."


The WINNER was LYNDON JOHNSON and he continued as the 36th president of the United States.

Johnson got 43,129,566 popular and 486 electoral.

Goldwater got 27,178,188 popular and 52 electoral.

Johnson got 61.1% of the vote - the largest percentage win in U.S. history. His 16,000,000 popular vote was the largest up to that time but was surpassed by Nixon's 1972 victory and Reagan's 1984 victory.

ELECTION # 44, 1960. The NASTY-METER rises to 9.

QUOTE from Tom Wicker: "Nobody knows to this day who the American people really elected in 1960."

The oldsters were out (Eisenhower and Truman) and the youngsters were in (Kennedy and Nixon) in the campaign of 1960. Eisenhower had left office leaving quite a few problems for the next president. Russia had beaten us into outer space, Russia was making threatening noises, Ike had used federal troops to force school integration in Little Rock but did nothing to address the roots of the civil rights, and American military advisors were being sent to country called South Vietnam. The most explosive decade in the twentieth century was about to begin with an election that many feel remains, to this day, too close to call.

The CANDIDATES in 1960.

DEMOCRAT: JOHN F. KENNEDY.

Kennedy was 43, a war hero, son of millionaires, a former congressman and senator, had movie-star good looks, and had a beautiful wife. But he had one big problem - he was Catholic. The last Catholic to run was Al Smith in 1928 and he had been nearly burned at the stake. (see election #36 and you'll see what I mean.)
Kennedy chose Lyndon Johnson of Texas as his VP running mate. Kennedy and Johnson hated each other but Kennedy needed Johnson to carry the South. Why did Johnson accept? These are his words as told to a woman at the convention: "One out of every four presidents has died in office. I'm a gamblin' man, darlin', and this is the only chance I got."

REPUBLICAN: RICHARD NIXON.

Nixon was 47, also a former congressman and senator, VP under Eisenhower, and had had a meteoric rise to the top in the Republican Party just like Kennedy had in the Democratic Party. They both had done it in fourten years - from 1946 to 1960. Nixon had gained quite a reputation as being tough on communism with his work in Congress and with his famous "Kitchen Debate" with Khrushchev in Moscow. Nixon's running mate was UN ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge.

Eisenhower wasn't impressed with Nixon. He had distrusted his VP ever since his famous Checkers Speech in 1952. When Ike was asked if Nixon had participated in any major decisions in his administration, Eisenhower replied, "If you give me a week, I might think of one."

The CAMPAIGN in 1960.

Nixon tried to change his reputation of being devious and underhanded, he created the New Nixon persona of being mellow, mild, and reasonable. But Harry Truman didn't fall for it when he remarked, "If you vote for Nixon, you might go to hell."

Kennedy had his own problems. He appealed to large urban audiences but not to farmers. They were not impressed with his "rich-boy" charm. After talking to a less than enthusiatic group of farmers at the South Dakota state fair he said to an aide, "Well, that's over. Fuck the farmers."

His Catholicism was also a big problem but he was able to defuse it when he went to Houston to address a prominent group of Protestant ministers. He was able to convincingly deny that he had an allegiance to the pope. To Nixon's credit he did not make Kennedy's Catholic faith an issue.

The Democrats actually ran a more negative campaign than the Republicans. One Democratic ad had a glowering picture of Nixon with a caption, "Would You Buy a Used Car from this Man?" Nixon went after Kennedy by hammering away at his lack of experience in foreign affairs and his lack of a really viable agenda for America.

Nixon's biggest mistake was in the first televised debate on September 26. In fairness to Nixon he was fighting off the effect of a debilitating knee infection that occurred after he had banged it on a car door earlier in the campaign. He had just been released from the hospital. Nixon looked strained and tired and exhausted plus he was running a temperature over 100 degrees. Instead
of wearing regular makeup for TV, he insisted on smearing on something called Lazy Shave, a kind of talcum powder that casts his face in a ghostly pallor. The hot TV lights made him sweat and his make-up seemed to be streaking over his five o'clock shadow. On the other hand, Kennedy came across as cool, poised, and confident. Nixon looked so bad that his mother called him and asked if he was ill. The funny thing is that those who listened on the radio thought Nixon won, while those who watched on TV thought Kennedy won. (TV would be the biggest factor in future campaigns and not one of the candidates since 1964 has ever made the same mistake Nixon did.) There were three more debates but it is the first one most people remembered and it was huge factor on election day.

The WINNER was JOHN F. KENNEDY.

Kennedy got 34,226,731 popular and 303 electoral.

Nixon got 34,108,157 popular 219 electoral.

The difference was only 119,450 votes, or less than one-tenth of one percent. It was the closest election since the Benjamin Harrison - Grover Cleveland race in 1888, (By contrast, in 2000, Al Gore would win the popular vote by more than a half-million votes over Geroge Bush, although he lost in the Electoral College.)

The Republican Party claimed voter fraud and wanted some investigating to be done. Earl Mazo, an investigative reporter for the New York Herald Tribune started an investigation on his own. He uncovered some flagrant fraud in Texas and Illinois. Some of his discoveries are below:
- dead people voting
-stolen paper ballots
-phony registering
-ten thousand votes for the Kennedy-Johnson ticket were simply nonexistent
- polling stations reporting thousands more votes than they had registered voters
-cash payments for votes
-pre-primed ballot machines, which would automatically record three votes for every one cast.
-duplicate voting

After publishing four of his articles (He planned on doing twelve of them) Nixon called him in his VP office and asked him to quit doing anymore. Nixon said, "For the sake of national unity, I want you to stop." He did.
Nixon saved the country from a horrible fight over having a recount and the diviseness it would have caused. I still think Nixon felt he got screwed but, in my opinion, he did the right thing for the sake of his country. He would get his revenge in 1968.

ELECTION #43, 1956. The NASTY-METER is 2.

QUOTE from President Eisenhower when waiting for Stevenson to concede the 1956 election: "What in the name of God is the monkey waiting for? he snapped. "Polishing his prose?"

The CANDIDATES in 1956.

REPUBLICAN: DWIGHT EISENHOWER.

Despite President Eisenhower's heart attack in 1955 and intestinal surgery in 1956 Ike was renominated at the Republican Convention on the first ballot. Ike had tried to get rid of Nixon by offering him a cabinet post, but the vice-president refused. To avoid an embarassing public battle, Ike agreed to keep him as a running mate.

DEMOCRAT: ADLAI STEVENSON.

Stevenson wanted another chance at the presidency despite being challenged in the primaries by Estes Kefauver of Tennessee. Stevenson won and picked Kefauver as his running mate.

The CAMPAIGN in 1956.

Stevenson had an even bigger hurdle to overcome in 1956 than he did in 1952. In fact, a Gallup Poll showed that six out of every ten Democrats would accept Eisenhower for their candidate if the Republicans didn't want him for a second term. (Talk about starting a campaign with a handicap.) And twenty major advertising agencies in New York wouldn't even handle the Stevenson campaign for fear of losing their Republican-supporting business clients.

Eisenhower was running on his "four more years of prosperity" theme and it was almost impossible for the Democrats to counter that.

The Democrats hammered away at what they called the part-time presidency of Eisenhower. Their best line was "Defeat part-time Eisenhower and full-time Nixon."

With the good times Americans were experiencing in the 1950s there wasn't any Democrat who was going to defeat Eisenhower in 1956.

The WINNER was DWIGHT EISENHOWER and he continued as our 34th president until January 20, 1961.

Eisenhower got 35,590,472 popular and 457 electoral.

Stevenson got 26,022,752 popular and 73 electoral.

Stevenson went on to becaome a very good ambassador to the U.N. under Kennedy.

The Democrats were looking forward to the 1960 campaign with ambitious senators like Jack Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Hubert Humphrey making plans for a 1960 run.

ELECTION #42, 1952. The NASTY-METER Iis 4.

QUOTE from Harry Truman: "I've said many a time that I think the Un-American Activities Committee was the most un-American thing in America."

Truman's second term was dominated by the Korean War and Senator Joseph McCarthy, the Republican senator from Wisconsin. McCarthy was a fire-breathing conservative who accused the Truman Administration of being infiltrated by communists. In the process of his Communist witch hunt he ruined countless careers and lives. He was a loud-mouthed opponent of Truman and constantly repeated his charge that the Democrats were responsible for "twenty years of treason." After twenty years of Democratic rule it was going to be an uphill battle for a Democrat to win, especially when the Republicans nominated a very popular WWII hero.


The CANDIDATES in 1952.

DEMOCRAT: ADLAI STEVENSON.

Stevenson came from a famous Democratic family. His grandfather was VP under Grover Cleveland in 1892 and William Jennings Bryan's running mate in 1900. Adlai himself had been assistant secretary of the navy during WWII and was now governor of Illinois, a populous and important state. And he was Harry Truman's choice to beome the next Democratic president. Stevenson chose Senator John Sparkman of Alabama as his VP running mate.

REPUBLICAN: DWIGHT EISENHOWER.

Eisenhower, known as IKE, had been a brilliant commander-in-chief during WWII and later served as Columbia University's president and a NATO commander. The Republicans had convinced Ike to be their candidate and they had a winner on their hands. He chose a young California senator named Richard Nixon as his VP running mate.

The CAMPAIGN in 1952.

Stevenson had his problems in this campaign. First of all he hesitated over whether or not to accept the Democratic nomination; people saw him as weak and indecisive - not the person to fight Communism and bring the country out of a nasty war in Korea.

Second, this was the first time television would play a big role in a campaign. Stevenson did not do himself a favor when speaking on television. The Democrats would buy thirty minutes of TV time and Stevenson would talk for all thirty minutes and put people to sleep - they simply tuned him out. He spoke in elegant compound sentences which was the wrong thing to do. (We've learned that people like short simple answers.)

Third, Stevenson was divorced and Americans had never voted for a divorced man in the White House. (That would have to wait until Ronald Reagan in 1980.)

Eisenhower's ad men were much wiser when it came to television time. Ben Duffy, his chief ad man, knew that people liked shorter and simpler answers. So he prepared a series of twenty-second spots entitled "Eisenhower Answers the Nation." The cameras would go to a person or a married couple who had a concerned question and Ike would answer in twenty seconds. They were very effective.

But Ike did make mistakes. He was photographed shaking hands with Senator Joseph McCarthy, whom many people of both parties now considered to be a national disgrace. And McCarthy did not help Ike by endorsing him (on TV) and referring to Stevenson as "Alger." Alger Hiss was the convicted State Department spy.

But with the world looking more and more like a dangerous place,(the USSR had just acquired nuclear weapons), the American people were forced to choose between a plain-spoken modern man of action or a long-winded "egghead" who couldn't end a speech on time.

One ugly piece of Republican campaigning was they spread the rumor that Adlai was gay. Stevenson loved women and dated many of them, but that didn't stop the Republicans from spreading the rumor, especially since, as the campaign began, a friend and aide named Bill Blair moved into the Illinois governor's mansion with Stevenson. Truman was so concerned that he sent an aide to Illinois to investigate. The aide reported back that Stevenson was straight. There were even rumors that Stevenson's former wife, Ellen, left him because he was gay. But the divorce had mainly been caused by Stevenson's devotion to his career and lack of attention to her.

The American people were ready for a change. The catchy "I Like Ike" slogan was rampant throughout America and when he said "I shall go to Korea" it was another winner. He was implying that he would stop this unpopular war - and he did - the fighting stopped on July 27, 1953.

The WINNER was DWIGHT EISENHOWER and he became the 34th president of the United States.

Eisenhower got 34,936,234 popular and 442 electoral.

Stevenson got 27,314,992 popular and 89 electoral.

Ike nearly didn't get the nomination at the Republican Convention in July of 1952. The favorite was Senator Robert Taft of Ohio. Eisenhower had decided to run as a Republican in 1952 because Taft was opposed to NATO. As commander of NATO in the previous two years Ike was convinced that NATO was necessary for the survival of a free Europe. Eisenhower announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination in 1952 in an effort to prevent Taft from becoming the nominee. However, the Republican Party bigwigs favored Taft so it was not going to be easy to get the nomination. At the convention, a junior senator from California saved the day for Ike. This senator put pressure on the California delegation, leading them to cast all of their 70 votes for Eisenhower. It saved the day for Ike and he got the nomination. That junior senator was none other than Richard Nixon, who received the VP nod for his deeds. Nixon also balanced the ticket nicely: He was a conservative Republican, while Eisenhower was a moderate. (Oh, how I wish the Republican Party had some Eisenhowers in it today.)

ELECTION #41, 1948. The NASTY-METER is 7.

QUOTE from Harry Truman on the journalists who predicted he would lose: "I know every one of these reporters. There isn't one of them who has enough sense to pound sand into a rat hole."

The 1948 saw the most amazing and successful campaign in U.S. history. The man who ran that race was Harry "give-em-hell" Truman. It also saw one of the worst campaigns ever and that was run by Truman's opponent - his name was Thomas E. Dewey.

The CANDIDATES in 1948.

DEMOCRAT: HARRY TRUMAN.

Truman was sixty-four years old in 1948. The Gallup Poll had Truman at 36% in the summer of 1948. It looked bleak for Harry but he had great confidence. He was determined to win this election, even though his mother-in-law had told him he should quit. Truman chose Senator Albert Barkley of Kentucky as his VP.

REPUBLICAN: THOMAS DEWEY.

Dewey had a lot going for him. He was 46 and had already established a national reputation as both an effective crime fighter and governor in NY. Dewey chose liberal Earl Warren, governor of California as his VP.

The CAMPAIGN in 1948.

Some Democratic bigwigs were so disappointed in Truman that they even reached out to General Eisenhower to run for president on the Democratic ticket. But Ike was not ready to run in 1948. Truman got the nomination but he had other problems to face other than Thomas Dewey. At the convention the Democrats split into two other political parties. Henry Wallace, FDR's former VP, formed the Progressive Pary whose platform was based on world peace - it attracted the more liberal elements of the Democratic Party. The third party was the Dixiecrat Party and was formed because Truman was in favor of civil rights.
The Dixiecrats were headed by Governor Strom Thurmond of South of Carolina - Strom and his party were opposed to civil rights reform.

With the Democrats so divided Dewey didn't think there was any way he could lose. Elmo Roper had his poll showing Dewey winning by 44% to 31%. Newsweek Magazine asked 50 political reporters who would win the election - the result was all 50 said Dewey would win. Dewey was so sure he would win that his advisors advised him to say nothing that would get him in trouble and he would win in a walkover. (It was not good advice, it proved to to be fatal.)

Truman refused to let Dewey get away with vagueness. He set out on a whistle-stop train tour of over 31,000 miles and 350 speeches. He attacked Republicans as "gluttons of privilege," "bloodsuckers with Wall Street offices," and "economic tapeworms." Not only was Dewey a target but also the Republican-dominated Congress which had blocked everything he tried to do for America in the previous two years - Harry called them the "do-nothing Congress." He blamed them for not helping stop rising food and housing prices. He had one thing going for him that Dewey didn't - he struck people as authentic. He used words like "damn" and "hell" while Dewey uttered "good gracious" and "oh, Lord." Truman spoke to crowds of thousands in towns big and small and they got bigger and bigger and more and more enthusiastic as the campaign progressed.

Even J. Edgar Hoover tried to help Dewey. Dewey and Hoover were good friends and Hoover was hoping that President Dewey would make him Attorney General. Hoover tried to find incriminating evidence about Truman's personal life that Dewey could use to influence the outcome. The best the FBI could come up with was that Truman was supposedly "soft on communism." The FBI even prepared position papers that Dewey released to the press as if they were written by his staff.

The WINNER was HARRY TRUMAN and he continued as the 33rd president of the U.S.

Truman got 24,179,347 popular and 303 electoral.

Dewey got 21,991,292 popular and 189 electoral.

Thurmond got 1,179,930 popular and 39 electoral.

On election eve in 1948 the Gallup Poll had Dewey winning by 5 points. The Wall Street Journal wrote an article wondering who Dewey's chief advisors would be. One reporter said, "We're going to miss lil' ole Harry." A writer in England wrote an article entitled "A Study in Failure."

Why did Harry win? Dewey said it was probably because of the low turnout, only 51% voted. They might have been swayed by the polls which predicted a sure win for Dewey - so they stayed home and didn't vote.

OR, it was probably because of Harry himself. As the underdog in the fight of his life, he simply went out, threw caution to the wind, and "gave 'em hell." He spoke with passion about what the truth was from his point of view. He liked to tell this story when campaigning in 1948. "In the middle of his speech someone would holler out, 'Give 'em hell, Harry!' Well, I never gave anybody hell - I just told the truth on these fellows and they thought it was hell." People felt he was authentic and they agreed with him - at least 24.1 million of them did -enough to win by over 2 million.

Harry had the last laugh in this tough campaign. On November 2, 1948 Harry went to bed a loser, and on November 3 he woke up a winner. One of the most famous photos in American election history is Truman holding up the Chicago Tribune's front page which said, DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN. Truman had one of the biggest grins on his face that any newly elected president has ever had. (I love to look at that photo and I think I can see Truman thinking, "Take your polls and shove 'em."

ELECTION #40, 1944. The NASTY-METER is 4.

QUOTE from FDR on hearing the news he had been reelected in 1944: "The first twelve years are the hardest."

The CANDIDATES in 1944.

DEMOCRAT: FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT.

If the country had not been at war in 1944 it is almost certain Roosevelt would not have run for a fourth term. He was sixty-two, in bad health suffering from heart disease, blood pressure, and frequent bouts of bronchitis. But he told friends and advisors that he would not stand to see a Republican victory, which would mean a Republican president presiding over what promised to be a powerful post-war era in America. FDR was nominated on the first ballot and the only question was who would be the VP. He dumped Wallace and picked Harry S. Truman, a popular senator from Missouri.

REPUBLICAN: THOMAS E. DEWEY.

The Republicans toyed with getting General MacArthur to run but that was forgotten when it was discovered that the General had written critical letters about FDR, his commander-in-chief, to some members of Congress. Some other MacArthur letters were discovered that he had sent to an ex-Singapore chorus girl who called him "Daddy." That was it for MacArthur so the Republicans nominated Thomas E. Dewey, the forty-two-year-old Governor of New York. Dewey had a record of being an effective governor as well as a great District Attorney. He chose Ohio governor John Bricker as his VP.


The CAMPAIGN in 1944.

This was the first war-time national election the U.S. had had since the Civil War. The Democrats stressed that it would not be wise to change leaders during wartime. They said FDR had done a great job in managing the war effort and had a worldwide status as a great leader.
Because Dewey had a pencil moustache, slim stature, and neatly combed black hair Roosevelt referred to him as the "the little man on the wedding cake."

The Republicans returned fire by saying Roosevelt was a leftist who had become the darling of American communists. And they harped on the "tired old men" in Washington and how they needed to be replaced by young and energetic visionaries like himself. They even went after Fala, Roosevelt's dog. They said FDR, when visiting the Aleutian Islands, had forgotten Fala in the Aleutians and had sent a destroyer to retrieve his dog. They said it showed the president's extravagance but Roosevelt diffused the charges with gentle sarcasm in a nationwide address: "I don't resent attacks and my family doesn't resent attacks, but Fala does resent them...he has not been the same dog since."

The WINNER was FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT and he continued as our nation's 32nd president for another three months - he died on April 12, 1945 from a cerebral hemmorrhage at his presidential retreat in Warm Springs, Georgia.

Roosevelt got 25,612,610 popular and 432 electoral.

Dewey got 22,117,617 popular and 99 electoral.

ELECTION #39, 1940. The NASTY-METER is 6.

QUOTE from FDR on January 4, 1939 in a message to Congress: "Once I prophesied that this generation of Americans had a rendezvous with destiny. That prophecy now comes true. To us much is given; more is expected. This generation will nobly save or mainly lose the last best hope of earth. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just."

The CANDIDATES in 1940: FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT.

Would he or wouldn't he? That was the question about FDR running for a third term which no other president had ever done. In 1940, with Hitler running over Europe and the Japanese threatening in the Pacific Roosevelt began to think that perhaps his country still needed him. He had indicated that he didn't want to run for a third term but deep down he knew he wanted to. So in July, 1940, he sent his top aide to the Democratic Convention in Chicago with a private message to the Democratic bosses that he would accept the nomination, but only if he won on the first ballot and only if he won by more than 150 votes. The next night, the convention chairman read the message to the delegates, and they reacted with an uproarious, deafening demonstration in favor of Roosevelt. The next night FDR was renominated on the first ballot and won by more than 150 votes. He chose Henry Wallace, an Iowan and former Secretary of Agriculture as his VP.
Roosevelt is probably the only president who could get away with running for a third term, short of George Washington. He was still very popular - a dazzling human figure whose "fireside chats" reached more than sixty million listeners and whose New deal programs had begun to revive the economy.

REPUBLICAN: WENDELL WILLKIE.

Willkie was a forty-eight-year-old utilities executive who, until 1939, had been a Democrat and even a delegate to the 1932 Democratic Convention. He was a maverick politician and had many supporters who loved his aggressive style. He was tall, folksy, and charismatic. Taking his grass-roots organization to the Republican Convention in June of 1940 he beat out the experienced Republicans like Thomas Dewey, N.Y. District Attorney, and Senator Robert Taft of Ohio, the son of the twenty-seventh president.

The CAMPAIGN in 1940.

Willkie took off on a 19,000 mile campaign tour and gave more than 500 speeches in fifty-one days. He attacked Roosevelt for being a "third-term" candidate. He spread the word that a vote for FDR meant a vote for war and an FDR victory meant "wooden crosses for sons and brothers and sweethearts." He said "Bring on the Champ" when demanding FDR debate him - but it was to no avail as Roosevelt knew better than to do that.

Roosevelt and the Democratic Machine retaliated by calling Willkie "the simple, barefoot, Wall Street lawyer" whose utility company had used spies to bust up labor unions. FDR also attacked Willkie's isolationist stand and told reporters that "anyone who is pro-Hitler in this country is also pro-Willkie."

Willkie campaigned so hard that he was losing his voice and had to be accompanied by a doctor. With his hard campaigning the race tightened up in the last couple of weeks and a couple of polls indicated that Willkie was actually ahead. FDR, sensing the danger, gave five fiery speeches in the last week, telling aides that Willie "didn't know he was up against a buzzsaw."

The WINNER: FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT.

Roosevelt got 27,307,819 popular and 449 electoral.

Willkie got 22,321,018 popular and 82 electoral.

It was a substantial win for Roosevelt but not quite as good as his other two victories.

Below are two untold secrets of this 1940 campaign - they are very interesting:

First, the Republicans had evidence that Rossevelt's VP candidate Henry Wallace was writing weird and coded letters to a Russian mystic named Nicholas Roerich. I read a couple of these and they were coded and weird. Wallace had a dreamy, spiritual side and these letters proved it. The Republican bigwigs told the Democratic bigwigs that they had copies of these letters and they threatened to release them so the American people could see that Wallace was a real lunatic. They were never released because Willkie said "no - we will not release them."

Second was the Democratic secret about Willkie. There was a good reason that Willkie did not release the weird letters of Wallace. Willkie knew the Democrats had evidence that he had a "mistress" in New York City. Her name was Irita Van Doren, a writer and editor. Roosevelt suggested that maybe the voters might be interested to learn about Willkie's girlfriend.

But the voters never heard about Wallace's weird letters to the Russian mystic nor did they hear about Willkie's girlfriend. There is no knowledge of direct communications between Roosevelt and Willkie, but it's only natural to suspect that some agreement was worked out. (I can assure you that if this happened in recent elections it would be front page news. The media isn't very forgiving these days.)

ELECTION #38, 1936. The NASTY-METER is 4.

QUOTE from Franklin D. Roosevelt when giving his second inaugural address on January 20, 1937: "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."

The CANDIDATES in 1936.

DEMOCRAT: FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT.

Roosevelt was easily renominated for a second term. He kept "Cactus Jack" Garner as his VP.

REPUBLICAN: ALF LANDON.

With the Democrats having a very popular FDR running for reelection the Republicans did the best they could. The nominated Kansas Governor Alf Landon, who tried to present himself as the everyday American.

The CAMPAIGN in 1936.

By 1936 Roosevelt had proven to the American people that he was a man of action. In his first four years he had gotten Congress to pass the F.D.I.C, the WPA, the Social Security Act, the TVA, the CCC and several others. These measures had an immediate effect on the nation's recovery. Natually, his political enemies didn't like him or his achievements.

The Republicans went after Roosevelt by saying he was a socialist and was leading the nation down the road to communism. Landon embarked on a "holy crusade" against the excesses of the New Deal which he said had centralized government and gave too much power to labor. Republicans had hired a film director named Ted Bohn to teach Landon not to smile with his mouth hanging open, to walk slightly ahead when in a group in order to dominate photos, and to shake hands with his chin up to give the impression of firmness - the training did little good.

Roosevelt - who privately referred to Landon as "the White Mouse" who wants to live in the White House didn't have to do much campaigning. However, when he did he was met by huge crowds, as many as 100,000 during some speeches - who were showing their approval for his policies.

Desperate, the Republicans tried to manipulate the media, asking the Associated Press to always identify Landon in its stories with the tag "budget balancer." The AP said it would, but only if they could tag Roosevelt as "humanity's savior."

The WINNER: FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT and he continued as the 32nd president of the U.S.

Roosevelt got 27,757,333 popular and 523 electoral.

Landon got 16,684,231 popular and 8 electoral.

Even though the Republicans spent nine million dollars on the campaign Roosevelt kicked butt with over eleven million more popular votes and
515 electoral.

ELECTION #37, 1932. The NASTY-METER is 10 (especially for Hoover).

QUOTE from Franklin D. Roosevelt at his inauguration in March, 1933: "Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

What a difference four years can make. The stock market had crashed in 1929, twenty-three hundred banks collapsed in 1931 alone, in 1932, more than 300,000 kids were forced out of bankrupt school systems,and millions of Americans were out of work. The name Hoover became synonymous with desperation and poverty - Hoovervilles were shantytowns, Hoover blankets were newspapers, and Hoover Pullmans were boxcars in which, over 200,000 starving Americans rode throughout the country seeking jobs.

The CANDIDATES in !932.

REPUBLICAN: HERBERT HOOVER.

The Republicans were stuck with Hoover and his seventy-two year old VP, Charles Curtis. The only claim to fame that Curtis had was that he had Native-American blood. Before he gave a speech, Curtis would always have an Indian "maiden" recite Longfellow's "Hiawatha."

DEMOCRAT: FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT.

The Democrats had the charismatic FDR, he was fifty years old and the governor of New York. He had been crippled by polio in 1921 but possessed huge reserves of energy as well as the political gift of being able to tell people exactly what they wanted to hear. FDR's VP candidate was "Cactus Jack" Garner, a hard-drinking Texan and Speaker of the House.

The CAMPAIGN in 1932.

Roosevelt and the Democrats made sure the American people hadn't forgotten the promises Hoover had made. Two examples of those Hoover promises were: "Prosperity is just around the corner." and "The worst has passed" - most Americans had not forgotten.

Hoover had become so unpopular that the Secret Service warned him not to leave the White House. At a campaign stop in Kansas, people threw tomatoes at his train, and a few people were arrested for pulling up spikes from the tracks. In Detroit people demanded he be lynched - the mounted police had to break up this demonstration. In his final campaign appearance in New York he was surrounded by crowds screaming, "We want bread." At one point he said to his aides. "I can't go on anymore."

In the meantime Roosevelt was campaigning by train across the country speaking of his "New Deal for the American people" and was continuously upbeat. Plus he used the campaign songs "Happy Days Are Here Again" and "Kick Out The Depression With a Democratic Vote."

The WINNER was FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT and he became the 32nd president of the U.S.

Roosevelt got 22,829,501 popular and 472 electoral.

Hoover got 15,760,684 popular and 59 electoral.

About any Democrat could have won in 1932, that's how unpopular Hoover was. One biographer of Hoover said that "not only was Hoover beaten but 'he was excommunicated.'" Roosevelt won 42 of the 48 states. The vote totals were almost the exact opposite of 1928.

Roosevelt almost didn't get to be president. Being his inauguration wouldn't be until March 4, 1933, in February he took a vacation to the Bahamas and Florida. While giving a speech in Florida a man took a shot at Roosevelt. The shot missed FDR but hit Anton Cermak, the mayor of Chicago. Unfortunately for Cermak, he happened to be standing next to Roosevelt.

ELECTION #36, 1928. The NASTY-METER hits 10.

QUOTE from Herbert Hoover when accepting the Republican nomination for president in 1928: "We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land."

Coolidge decided not to run for reelection when on August 2, 1927, he handed a slip of paper to reporters that said, "I do not choose to run for President in 1928." He took no questions and walked back into his house. Nobody knows why he didn't run again but one story is that his wife allegedly said, "Papa says there's going to be a depression." Whether the story is true or not the depression part was soon to be true.

The CANDIDATES in 1928.

REPUBLICAN: HERBERT HOOVER.

Hoover was well-known and had a great reputation. He had been Secretary of Commerce under Coolidge and had become well-known for his humanitarian aid to thousands of starving Europeans during and after WWI. But he was also one of the stiffest, most stilted, most machinelike candidates ever to run for president - so much so that Republicans were forced to plant articles with such headlines as "That Man Hoover-He's Human."

DEMOCRAT: AL SMITH.

Al Smith was the opposite of Hoover, a career politician born and bred within New York's Tammany Hall system. He was a four-time governor of N.Y. and loved to press the flesh and meet people. He had gained a national following and had the support of rising stars like Franklin D. Rooseelt and his wife Eleanor. But he had two major problems and they were big ones. He supported the repeal of Prohibition, and he was America's first Catholic presidential candidate.

The CAMPAIGN in 1928.

Up to 1928 it would be the nastiest one in our history. One historian wrote, "one of the most revolting spectacles in the nation's history."
Most of what I have to say for the rest of this post is how the Republicans carried out their campaign against Smith. Here goes:

The Republicans talked about how great the economy was with slogans like this, "Hoover and Happiness or Smith and Soup Houses," or, "A Chicken in Every Pot - Vote for Hoover.,"
or, "Your Vote Versus the Spectacle of Idleness and Ruin."

Hoover wisely stayed away from debating the more colorful Smith and presented himself as a smart businessman who would run the government like an efficient corporation.

The Ku Klux Klan got real nasty with the Catholic candidate named Al Smith. The Klan hated Catholics as much as they hated blacks and Jews. When Smith's train headed west, it was met by burning crosses on the hills and explosions from dynamite charges could be heard echoing across the praires. The KKK and other religious bigots swayed ignorant voters by telling them that the Catholic Smith would turn the U.S. over to "Romanism and Ruin."
Protestant ministers told their congregations that if Smith became president all non-Catholic marriages would be annulled and all children of these marriages declared illegitimate. Some even went so far as to tell their flock that if they voted for Smith, they would go straight to hell.

And there was more anti-Catholic and anti-Smith rhetoric. When New york's Holland Tunnel was completed Republicans circulated pictures of Smith at the mouth of the tunnel, declaring that it really led 3,500 miles under the Atlantic Ocean to Rome - to the basement of the Vatican. And in Daytona Beach, Florida, the school board instructed that a note be placed in every child's lunch pail that read: "We must prevent the election of Alfred Smith to the presidency. If he is elected you will not be allowed to read or have a Bible." (These remind me of some of the same tactics used against Obama in 2008.)

They tore into Smith about his drinking. They spread rumors that he was an alcoholic, had displayed drunken public behavior and claimed he had already secretly promised to appoint a bootlegger as secretaty of the treasury.(In truth, Smith was a moderate drinker who enjoyed a cocktail in the evening from legal pre-Prohibition stock. But the truth rarely makes a difference in campaigns.)

Then Republicans came up with this poem.

When Catholics rule the United States
And the Jew grows a Christian nose on his face
When Pope Pius is head of the Ku Klux Klan
In the land of the United States
Then Al Smith will be our president
And the country not worth a damn.

The Republicans also railed against Smith for dancing and said he indulged in playing cards, poodle dogs, divorces, novels, evolution, nude art, prize-fighting, greyhound racing, and modernism.

As far as Smith was concerned he had an uphill battle on his hands. He talked on national radio but did himself no favors. With his heavy New York accent he pronounced words that alienated many rural voters. He pronounced radio as "radeeo" and first as "foist." It just didn't fly with many voters. He did much better when campaigning in person.
Smith thought he had an ace-in-the-hole when Babe Ruth supported him. Babe Ruth was the nation's biggest sports hero at that time plus the Yankees had just defeated the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1928 World Series. Babe stumped for Smith from the back of the train on the way back to New York after the World Series. Unfortunately, Ruth wasn't the best spokesman for Smith. He would sometimes appear in his undershirt, holding a mug of beer in one hand and sparerib in the other. Worse, if he met with any dissent while praising Smith, he would snarl, "If that's the way you feel, the hell with you!" and stagger back inside. (This is funny. As I'm typing this I'm laughing like hell.)

The WINNER was HERBERT HOOVER and he became the 31st president of the U.S.

Hoover got 21,427,123 popular and 444 electoral.

Smith got 15,015,464 popular and 87 electoral.

It was a massive landslide for Hoover. But by 1932 his popularity would hit rock bottom.

ELECTION #35, 1924. The NASTY-METER is 2.

QUOTE from Calvin Coolidge: "I don't recall any candidate for president who ever injured himself very much by not talking."

The campaign for president in 1924 was rather uneventful. Americans were having a good time, the economy was booming, there were no wars, many people were drinking illegal booze and enjoying it, and they didn't want to change anything. The election results would prove that to be true.

The CANDIDATES in 1924.

REPUBLICAN: CALVIN COOLIDGE.

Warren Harding died in a San Francisco hotel room on August 3, 1923. As VP Calvin Coolidge succeeded to the presidency. His VP running mate was Charles Dawes, budget director and former bright young political operative for William McKinley.

DEMOCRAT: JOHN W. DAVIS.

The Democratic Convention was broadcast over the radio, a first in American politics. Over one million people listened and were treated to endless days of squabbling from Ku Klux Klan members. The KKK had made major inroads into southern and western circles and wanted a platform amenable to their racist agenda. But after an astonishing 103 ballots (a record that still stands)anti-Klan forces prevailed and nominated John W. Davis, former solicitor general under Woodrow Wilson. His VP mate was Charles Bryan, governor of Nebraska and brother of William Jennings Bryan.

The CAMPAIGN in 1924.

Say what you want about Calvin Coolidge, he was smart enough to keep his mouth shut (see quote above). About all Coolidge did say was that he was "for the economy, After that, I am for more economy." The Republican campaign slogan "Keep Cool with Coolidge" seemed to sum it up.

Democrat John Davis was not a good speaker and knew he would never be elected - he wrote later in life, "I went all around the country telling people I was going to be elected and I knew I hadn't any more chance than a snowball in hell."

Radio played a major role for the first time. Coolidge was told that Wilson and Harding had basically ruined their health by traveling too much so maybe he should stick to the radio to save his own health. He did plus he got in a lot of naps.

The WINNER was CALVIN COOLIDGE and he became the 30th president of the U.S.

Coolidge got 15,719,921 popular and 382 electoral.

Davis got 8,386,242 popular and 136 electoral.

LaFollette got 4,831,706 popular and 13 electoral.

It was a two-to-one landslide for Coolidge. Supreme Court Chief Juctice Oliver Wendell Holmes summed up everyone's feelings quite nicely: "While I don't expect anything very astonishing from Coolidge, I don't want anything very astonishing."

Hi__________________

This is from Pete Bungum. Barack Obama has been our president for 3 1/2 years. He seems to be a polarizing figure and I'm trying to find out why some people HATE him so much and why some people really LIKE him . I've done research to identify what President Obama "stands for" and "what he has accomplished" as President. This is an effort by me to identify exactly what it is about this man that makes some people feel the way they do.

The people who complete this survey should be able to identify the specific reasons for their feelings toward President Obama. It will tell the person why they HATE  him (or why they LIKE him.) Follow the directions below.



Hi ________

This is from Pete Bungum. I'm wondering if you would help me on this research project. It has to do with politics but don't let that scare you off. I'm not trying to make anybody upset but simply trying to find some answers to questions I have about why there is so much HATE and DIVISIVENESS in this country. Yes, this poll/survey is about President Obama as he seems to be the recipient of this HATE and DIVISIVENESS. I have asked many people why they feel this way about Obama. Most say they do not want to talk about it -  those that do talk seem to be most upset about Obamacare but 99% claim that it is not that he has black skin. On the other hand many people LIKE President Obama - I'd like to know why they LIKE him and this poll/survey will also do that.

Having said that I would really like to have you do this. My plan is to get this, by email or letter, to at least 50- 100 people or more. What I've done is identify 47 possible reasons as to WHY people feel the way they do about Obama. I've divided the 47 statement into 5 categories. The 5 categories will help me more easily compile the resuts in order to reach some conclusions.

The final section of  this poll/survey is called the "CONCLUSION." If you do not want me to know who you are just cut off the CONCLUSION part and send it to me by U.S. mail. There is no way I will know.
 If you don't care if I know send your completed poll/survey by U.S.mail to - 516 Jordan Drive, Anamosa, 52205 or by email to (pgrab1960@aol.com)

As I said I'm not trying to make anybody mad or upset. I simply want some information as to why people feel so strongly, one way or another, about President Obama. It is almost equivalent to the love or hate that FDR went through in the 1930s and 1940s.

If you choose to do this I say "Thank You" in advance. If you choose not to that is fine also.

TALK FOR CHUCK.

First Ruth Ann and I want to again express our condolences to Marlys, Brett, Andrea, Kirsten, Cheryl, Jack and grandkids Annie, Sam, Josh, Peter, Sarah, and Charlie. You indeed have lost a great man as a husband, father, father-in-law, and grandfather and he was truly a a very funny and witty man. And, of course, we siblings of Chuck have lost our first brother.

Chuck and I lived in the same house from 1940 to 1954. He left for the U.S. Navy when I finished 8th grade. As a result of being in the same house for 14 years I have many memories of the two of us growing up, most all of them from ages 6 to 14 for me. I want to share some of these memories - I'm going to start with some of the fights we had as young kids - they are kind  of  funny now - but they  were not very pleasant for me "poor little innocent Peter." Then I'll tell some more pleasant ones. Many of you have heard these before but they're worth telling again as I'll never be telling them again.

For some reason Chuck and I didn't always see eye-to-eye. I want to read from my autobiography on what I wrote about  our years together in Mantorville and Dodge Center. This will help  explain why we didn't always get along. Here are some examples:

1. Read p. 6 of autobiography - Mantorville fights
 He wasn't the most tactful person with me and I don't know why because as you just heard I was such an innocent kid. I must have been about 7-8 when this happened. All the older kids were gone and Dad and Mom had to go someplace so Chuck volunteered to babysit for me, John and Mark. I begged Dad and Mom not to let Chcuk babysit but they agreed to let him do it anyway. He promised he would be nice to me. As they drove down the driveway he turned to me and said "Pete if you don't do what I tell you I'm going to rearrange your face and body." I got the message and went to bed early that night. That was a good display of tactfulness in action.
3. This one was at age 7-8 also. The upstairs bedroom and hooked screen door. p.6
4.And then the best ones. SHOW CHUCK'S PLAQUE. .
-The story of the butter knife.
The story of the bed castor.

Not all of my memories about  Chuck involve FIGHTS.  Let me share a few of some other  memories I have of Chuck.

0. I remember in 2nd grade at Mantorville school when, during noon hour in the gym, a kid named Wesley Keller was picking on me and unfortunatel for Wesley Chuck saw him doing it. Chuck came and got a hold of Wesley and lifted him off the floor and told him to knock it off. Wesley didn't bother my anymore.
1.You've probably heard the football story about me in 7th grade being substituted for Chuck. It was in Dodge Center and the story goes like this.

2. I remember what a great trumpet player he was. He had more misical talent than all the rest of us 9 kids put together. I was always kind of jealous of his talent. He could easily have made a living being a trumpet player in an orchestra or a band. At their 50th anniversary  in '08 at Jack and Kirstens house I told this story of Mom and me and his trumpet

3. I remember what a great athlete he was, especially in football. He played on the famous  1952 Dodge Center team that was undefeated, untied and unscored upon. Actually I did to. I remember one time when he was noseman on defense he took the opponents center and grabbed him by the shoulder pads and threw him aside like he was bale of hay. It was funny to watch - that poor center. He probably stiil has nightmares about flying through the air at Dodge Center that day. There were 2 guys from that 1952 team who playued for the Gophers - Dave Myers went in 1952 and was a kicker and Everett Gerths, who stared as an 8th grader in 1952 played linebacker from 1957 to 1960.  I wish Chuck had played football at Luther he could started for all 4 years. As far as I'm concerned I think he could have played for the Gophers also. 

4. I remember at the Dodge County Rest Home when he dressed up like a doctor with a white gown on and went to this guy's room, The guy's name was Tommy Lawler and he complained a lot about his huge hernia hanging out of his stomach. Chuck walks into the room, tells Tommy he is a doctor and was going to operate on his hernia. So Chuck pulls out this Japanese bayonet, the one Paul brought back from Japan. I guess Tommy didn't complain too much about his hernia hurting after that.

5. I remember the smiling dog. Chuck and Marlys and kids had this dog that Chuck could make smile. He sinply told the dog to smile and he would pull his lips back and show his teeth. It was funny.

6. I remember Chuck struggling with his weight all his life. Even as a kid he was overweight. I don't know why he got the fat genes and the rest of us didn't. I've been grateful that I didn't have to confront that in my life.

7. I remember a  quote of his at a Iowa-Minnesota football game in Iowa City - only Chuck could come up this one. The Hawks were ahead and Minnesota was marching down the field trying to catch up when they had a 4th and 3 at the Iowa 30 yard line. They chose to go for the first down instead of going for the field goal. The Gopher quarterback took the snap and for some reason fell down. I didn't see the play so I asked Chuck what happened and only Chuck could up with this answer,"He tripped on a blade of grass."

8. I remember the many times we got together in our adult years when we were both raising kids and after . We had so many good times and shared many laughs. What great memories we have of Chuck and Marlys and Kirsten, Andrea and Brett


9. My best memory of brother Chuck is his fantastic sense of humor and quick wit. He could have been a comedian along with many other things in life. He probably had the most abilities of any of us 9 kids
I still laugh when I think of his antics and some the funny words that came out of his mouth.

10. I'm going to miss this bigger and older brother - miss him a lot as we all will.

ELECTION #34, 1920. The NASTY-METER goes to 9.

QUOTE from New York Times in 1920: "Harding is a very respectable Ohio politician of the second class."

Wilson had to break his promise to keep the U.S. out of the war in Europe when Germany opened up unrestricted submarine warfare against merchant shipping, and several American vessels were sunk by U-boats. Wilson and Congress declared war on Germany in April, 1917. When the war ended in November, 1918, Wilson wanted to join the new League of Nations that he had proposed in his famous Fourteen Points to secure a lasting peace. But the Republicans in Congress thwarted him on every issue and we did not join. Worn out, Wilson suffered a stroke which left him partially disabled for the remember of his term. The end of the war brought higher costs for goods and widespread unemployment. This was just the opportunity the Republicans hungered for - a chance to reposition themselves as the party of the full dinner pail and the good old uncomplicated prewar days.

The CANDIDATES in 1920.

REPUBLICAN: WARREN G. HARDING

Warren G. Harding was the horniest candidate in the history of the U.S. Republican Party bosses asked Harding if he had anything hidden in his closet that would "disqualify" him from winning the presidency. He could have pondered that he chewed tobacco, played poker, loved to drink, and was having affairs with not only the wife of a friend but also a young woman thirty years his junior, with whom he had an illegitimate daughter. Then he said, "nope, nothing to hide, guys - it's all good." He chose Calvin Coolidge, governor of Massachusetts as he VP.

DEMOCRAT: JAMES M. COX.

Their nominee was James Cox, the liberal governor of Ohio, who promised to campaign for the Wilson's Leauge of Nations. His VP running mate was the young and charismatic assistant secretary of the navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, distant cousin and nephew-in-law of Teddy Roosevelt.

The CAMPAIGN in 1920.

The Republicans knew they had to get rid of the evidence regarding Harding's sex partners so they sent his married lover on an extended, all-expenses-paid tour of Asia, along with her entire family. (I wonder who paid for that trip? Could it have been some Wall Street bankers?) And just to be completely safe, Republicans also sent Harding's brother-in-law to Europe because he had married a Catholic (and Catholics were not popular in the Midwest.)

Then Harding went on the campaign trail professing about bringing "normalcy" back to America. Normalcy apparently meant small-town, turn-of-the-century American values. Harding was never too clear about what these values were but it played well with the American people who were becoming more and more conservative.

Cox and the Democrats attacked and called Harding "weak, colorless, and mediocre." and "a dummy, an animated automaton, a marionette." But nothing stuck.

A biographer of Harding said "he was a brilliant politician, shrewd when it came to giving people satisfying emptiness." And Harding's campaign consultant, a Chicago ad and PR guy, saw to it that Harding was photographed with the Hollywood stars of the day which included Al Jolson, Lillian Russell, Douglas Fairbanks, and Mary Pickford. The American people had no trouble deciding which candidate was more fun. (It definitely was not Cox.)

The WINNER was WARREN G. HARDING and he became the 29th president of the U.S.

Harding got 16,153,115 popular and 404 electoral.

Cox got 9,133,092 popular and 127 electoral.

It was a huge landslide for Harding, especially among women. (Women were voting for the first time - for some reason they liked this horny guy.)

ELECTION #33, 1916. The NASTY-METER is 3.

QUOTE from the Washington in 1915: "The president spent most of the evening entering Mrs. Galt."

In Wilson's first term he got a lot things done:
-kept the U.S. out of World War I,
-lowered tariffs so the common folks could buy cheaper foreign goods,
-got the 16th amendment passed which provided for a federal income tax,(1% over $3,000 and 7% over $20,000)
-got the 17th amendment passed which allowed for popular election of senators instead of state legislatures,
-signed the "Child Labor Bill" which forbade kids under the age of 14 from working in fctories,
-signed bills providing federal funds for new highways and schools,
- signed the first Unemployment Compensation Act,
-established the Federal Trade Commission which had the power to study suspected monopolies and recommend the destruction of them.
He was the first truly liberal president and it looked like he was assured of being reelected.

The CANDIDATES in 1916.

DEMOCRAT: WOODROW WILSON.

With Wilson swearing to keep Americans out of war, he was nominated to deafening applause on the first ballot at the Democratic Convention in St. Louis. His VP continued to be Thomas Marshall.

REPUBLICAN: CHARLES EVANS HUGHES.

Being Wilson was described as an "intellectual" the Republicans decided to get their own "intellectual" in the White House by nominating Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes. Hughes chose Charles Fairbanks as his running mate - he was Teddy's old VP.

The CAMPAIGN in 1916.

Teddy Roosevelt still had clout in the Republican Party and he was not in love with Hughes. He called Hughes a "whiskered Wilson" and suggested that the only difference between the two was "a shave." However, after hemming and hawing he finally did endorse Hughes.
Wilson and the Democratic Party used one of the best campaign slogans in U.S. history: That slogan was, "He kept us out of war." This played exceedingly well, particularly in the western states where more and more women had gotten the right to vote. And Wilson supporters said that "a vote for Hughes is a vote for war."
The Republicans responded by saying Wilson had not done enough in responding to the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 (124 Americans were killed) so he should build up America's armed forces so we would be prepared and respected in the world.
They also attacked Wilson on a personal level. His wife, Ellen, had died in 1914 and he shocked the country by marrying again in December 1915 - this time to Edith Bolling Galt, a widow lady in her forties. Republicans quickly spread rumors that the president had had an affair with Edith before Ellen's death causing her to die of a broken heart. The following typograhical error in the Washington Post in 1915 didn't help Wilson as far as the rumor was concerned. A year after Ellen had died Wilson took Edith to the theater. The error in the Post was meant to read like this: "The president spent most of his time entertaining Mrs. Galt." Instead, the printed story read this way: "The president spent most of his time entering Mrs. Galt." (It's funny to read now but I'm sure Wilson didn't think it was funny at the time.)

The WINNER was WOODROW WILSON and he continued as the 28th president of the U.S.

Wilson got 9,126,868 popular and 277 electoral.

Hughes got 8,548,728 popular and 254 electoral.

The race was closer than expected but thanks to California and the western states Wilson pulled out the win. He only won California by 3,800 votes and swept the rest of the western states.

ELECTION #32, 1912. The NASTY-METER is 5.

QUOTE from Teddy Roosevelt: "Taft is a fathead...with the brains of a guinea pig."

Since 1860 the Republicns had occupied the White House for 44 years - the Democrats had only 8 years and that was the two nonconsecutive terms of Grover Cleveland. But in 1912 things were about to change in a dramatic way.
Teddy had chosen Taft as his successor and he was expected to follow the progressive policies of Teddy. However, after a year in office Taft found himself under the sway of big business. The Progressives complained he was selling out to the conservative bigwigs. Teddy, who had gone to Africa to do big game hunting when he left office in March of 1909, headed back home to the states in 1910 to see what was going on with Taft. Upon his return he was beseiged by Progressive Republicans to run for another term in 1912. It didn't take much convincing as he immediately started attacking Taft. He accused Taft of being a pawn of the "bosses and the great privileged interests." Taft was stunned to hear these attacks by his mentor and former personal friend and told an aide, "If I only knew what the President wanted, I would do it."

In February of 1912 Teddy decided to go for another term when he said, "My hat is in the ring. The fight is on and I am stripped to the buff." Taft retaliated by saying, "I do not want to fight Theodore Roosevelt, but sometimes a man in a corner comes out swinging...I was a man of straw but I have been a man of straw long enough. Every man who has blood in his body...is forced to fight."

By 1912, for the first time, some states were having primary races to choose delegates for the national convention. Teddy beat Taft in 9 of 10 states - he even won in Taft's home state of Ohio. It looked like Teddy was on a roll to unseat Taft for the Republican nomination. However, Taft's conservative political bosses controlled the Republican National Committee and they made a point of lining up Taft delegates from the majority of states that did not hold primaries. They also made deals with Republican delegates from the southern states who would vote for Taft in return for favors or cold cash. At the convention the Roosevelt supporters made challenge after challenge when Taft's men tried to seat these delegates. But all the challenges were voted down which led to tensions running so high that police squads were brought in to put barbed wire around the stage. Taft got the nomination with 561 delegates to Teddy's 107 - at that point Teddy and his supporters stormed out of the convention. They formed their own party made up of social workers, reformers, feminists to unhappy Republicans. They called themselves the Progressive Party but became known as the Bull Moose Party because Roosevelt had proclaimed, "I am fit as a bull moose."
This was committing political suicide as the Democrats had about 45% of the national vote locked up. One onlooker said about Roosevelt and Taft, "The only question is, which corpse gets the flowers."

The CANDIDATES in 1912.

REPUBLICAN: WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT.

Taft tried to rally his supporters by calling Teddy a "destructive radical and even neurotic." But he knew it would be almost impossible to win when he wrote to his wife, "Sometimes I think I might as well give up as far as being a candidate is concerned. There are so many people in the country who don't like me."

PROGRESSIVE-BULL MOOSE: THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

Roosevelt had to explain what he meant by his 1904 statement when he said he would not seek another term. He lamely explained that he meant he wouldn't run for three consecutive terms. Yet he remained enormously popular and would have won if he had been the nominee of the Republican Party.

DEMOCRAT: WOODROW WILSON.

There was a battle royal at the Democratic convention between Missouri Congressman "Champ" Clark, Speaker of the House, and the new kid on the block, Woodrow Wilson. Wilson was the former president of Princeton University and the current governor of New jersey. He was extremely bright and ambitious. Wilson finally got the nomination on the 46th ballot. For VP he chose Thomas Marshall, governor of Indiana, who is known in history for having said: "What the country needs is a really good five-cent cigar."

The CAMPAIGN in 1912.

Three evenly matched candidates squared off in 1912 - a scenario like any other in our history. Taft was honest but passive, Teddy was explosive but full of energy, Wilson was coherent but perhaps cold.

Taft attacked Roosevelt by saying, "He is classed with the leaders of religious cults who promote things over their followers by any sort of manipulation and deception."

That was almost the truth as Teddy said, "We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord!" - and his progressive followers had an almost religious fervor. He claimed in his New Nationalism program that the government would play a strong role in regulating the economy and overseeing greedy and corrupt corporations.

Wilson attacked Taft and Roosevelt as "Tweedledum and Tweedledee." He knew that Roosevelt's plan was close to his so he developed his own plan called The New Freedom, which placed more emphasis on oversight of monopolies but far less of a powerful role for the federal government. He would also seek more cooperation with labor unions. Wilson was a bit stiff when speaking but people gradually warmed up to him and in the last week of the campaign gamblers set 5-to-1 odds in Wilson's favor.

The WINNER was WOODROW WILSON and he became the 28th president of the U.S.

Wison got 6,296,184 popular and 435 electoral.

Roosevelt got 4,122,721 popular and 88 electoral.

Taft got 3,486,242 popular and 8 electoral.

Although Wilson got only 41% of the popular vote he was strong in the electoral with 435. Teddy
Roosevelt was the first and only third-party candidate in American history to pull more votes than a major party candidate. Roosevelt rejoined the Republican Party after 1912 but never did run for president again.

An interesting tidbit from the 1912 campaign: On October 14, 1912, while waiting to give a speech in Milwaukee, a man named John Shrank walked up to Teddy and shot him in the chest. (Shrank said the ghost of William McKinley had appeared to him and told him to shoot Roosevelt for running for a third term.) With a bullet in his chest Teddy insisted on giving his speech anyway. He ascended to the platform and said: "Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot, but it takes more than that to kill a bull moose." Teddy then took out his speech, which was covered with blood - the people gasped in horror. He gave his speech and went to the hospital. The bullet had fractured a rib and came very close to piercing his lung. The doctors said that what saved his life were the folded papers, a glasses case, and his thick chest muscles.

In sympathy both Taft and Wilson stopped campaigning while he was in the hospital.

(The old saying "United we stand, divided we fall" was so true in this election. If the Republicans had stayed united they would have won easily.)

ELECTION #31,1908. The NASTY-METER is 5.

QUOTE - a Democratic joke in the 1908 campaign: "What does Taft stand for, by the way? Why, T.A.F.t. means 'Take Advice from Teddy!'"

Teddy Roosevelt was a great president, he is always mentioned as one of our top five and he is one of the four on Mount Rushmore. His successes were winning the Nobel Peace Prize for helping end the Russo-Japanese War, started building the Panama Canal, helped pass the Pure Food and Drug Act, and further curbed big business excess with anti-monopoly legislation. But the biggest mistake he made was announcing on his election night that, "Under no circumstances will I be a candidate for or accept another nomination for a second term." That was dumb as he could have been reelected again with no problem.

The CANDIDATES in 1908.

REPUBLICAN: WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT.

Taft was well-liked, jovial politico who had risen high in the ranks of the Republican Party, in large part due to his friendship with Teddy. Taft weighed 330 pounds, and his VP, James "Sunny Jim" Sherman, weighed 200 pounds - pound for pound, they offered the most political tonnage of any presidential ticket in history. When the Republicans met in their convention in Chicago the delegates really wanted Teddy to run again, in fact their was a 49 minute demonstration of "Four, four, four more years." But Teddy kept his promise to not run again and endorsed his good friend Taft - Taft was nominated on the first ballot.

DEMOCRAT: WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN (again).

There was something sad about seeing Bryan running again. He had no chance but he hit the campaign trail swinging along with his VP mate, an Indiana state senator named John Kern.

The CAMPAIGN in 1908.

The Republicans launched a personal attack, with
Teddy himself describing Bryan as "a kindly man and well-meaning in a weak way...but he is the cheapest faker we have ever proposed for president." Teddy carefully managed Taft's campaign by telling him to not let the people see him play golf or go fishing - he said the American people regard the campaign as serious business. Teddy also told Taft's advisors not to let the 330 pounder get on a horse because it would be "Dangerous for him and cruelty to the horse."

Bryan struck back with his main theme of "Shall the people rule?" and he hammered the argument that far too many politicians were still in the pockets of big business. And they repeatedly said that Taft was a mere proxy for Teddy, which was true. Democratic religious newspapers(and some Republican ones) attacked Taft about his religious beliefs - he was a Unitarian and it was considered barely a religion by some. One paper said, "Think of the U.S. with a President who does not believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, but looks upon our immaculate Saviour as a common bastard and a low, cunning imposter." Teddy was so worried about this that he actually went to a Unitarian church service with Taft. Teddy explained, "that it would attract the attention of the sincere but rather ignorant Protestants who support me." Taft made no apologies for his religious beliefs: "If the American public is so narrow as not to elect a Unitarian, well and good. I can stand it."

Even though Taft wasn't a good speaker, for the most part, the voters liked and trusted him and they would show it on election day.

The WINNER was WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT and he would be the 27th president of the U.S.

Taft got 7,676,320 popular and 321 electoral.

Bryan got 6,412,294 popular and 162 electoral.

Bryan had been beaten 3 times but he would go on to be Woodrow Wilson's secretary of state and gain fame arguing against Darwinism (and Clarence Darrow) in the famous Scopes Monkey Trial in the mid-1920s in Tennessee.

Taft, as a Republican, had big business in his pocket and they helped him by pulling a couple of shenanigans before the election. The vice president of the N.Y. Central Railroad instructed that 2,500 freight and passenger cars be repaired -whether they needed it or not - to give jobs to numerous employees and make the economy appear healthier. And a Missouri steel company added 400 men to its payroll just before election day in order, the chairman said, to pick up votes for Taft.

ELECTION #30, 1904. The NASTY-METER is 2.

QUOTE from Wall Street tycoon Henry Clay Frick about Teddy Roosevelt: "We bought the son of a bitch but he didn't stay bought."

The election of 1904 is probably the least exciting campaign in our history.

The CANDIDATES in 1904.

REPUBLICAN: TEDDY ROOSEVELT.
President McKinley was shot on September 6, 1901 and died six days later. Much to the chagrin of some Republican tycoons VP Teddy Roosevelt became President. Understanding the deep voter dissatisfaction with big business, Roosevelt went after "the malefactors of great wealth" in antitrust suits while at the same time maintaining generally cordial relations with the Wall Street capitalists who would fund his 1904 campaign. He was nominated to great acclaim on the first ballot at the Republican convention in Chicago.

DEMOCRAT: ALTON B. PARKER.

Parker was probably one of the most obscure presidential candidates of all time. His backgroud was that he was chief justice of the New York Court of Appeals. He was so colorless that Roosevelt referred to him as "the neutral-tinted individual."

The CAMPAIGN in 1904.

The only thing of note was that Roosevelt thought he might lose New York so he made a personal appeal to his Wall Street connections which resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars being bestowed upon him overnight. These enormous sums embarrassed Roosevelt and he was worried that the tycoons like J.P. Morgan and Henry Ford Frick would feel they had him bought. Read the QUOTE above to see what Frick had to say a couple years later.

The WINNER was TEDDY ROOSEVELT and he was already the 26th president of the U.S.

Roosevelt got 7,626,593 and 336 electoral.

Parker got 5,082.898 popular and 140 electoral.

ELECTION #29, 1900. The NASTY-METER is 3.

QUOTE from Mark Hanna while speaking to the Republican convention delegates on Teddy Roosevelt being chosen as McKinley's VP running mate in 1900: "Don't any of you realize that there is only one life between that madman (Roosevelt) and the presidency."

McKinley had been a good president and turned the U.S. into a world power by winning the Spanish-America War (1898) and acquiring Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines in the process plus annexing Hawaii, also in 1898. The Depression of the 1890s had ended with the advent of good harvests, rising prices, and new gold discoveries in Alaska, Australia, and South Africa (these doubled the world's supply of gold and allowed the Treasury Department to issue more banknotes.)

The CANDIDATES in 1900.

REPUBLICAN: WILLIAM McKINLEY.

It was a foregone conclusion that McKinley would be the Republican nominee again. The big question was who was going to be his VP running mate. His first VP had died in office in 1899 so a new one had to be chosen. The main contender appeared to be Teddy Roosevelt, the hero of the Spanish-American War who as leader of the "Rough Riders" had won the battle of San Juan Hill. He was well-known and very popular. The only problem was Mark Hanna, the Republican power broker - he hated Roosevelt's manic energy and impulsiveness. Regardless of Hanna's feelings about Roosevelt McKinley left it up to the convention to choose his VP and they chose Teddy Roosevelt.

DEMOCRAT: WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN.

The Democrats nominated Bryan again, dooming their candidate to another hopeless fight. With the discovery of more gold his silver issue was dead.

The CAMPAIGN in 1900.

Bryan went after McKinley on imperialism and the stranglehold of trusts and monopolies on American business, but people didn't care. The Republicans said, "Let well enough alone." McKinley didn't even to bother to repeat his "front porch" campaign of 1896, instead, he let Teddy travel 21,000 miles giving fiery speeches that rivaled Bryan's.

The WINNER was WILLIAM McKINLEY and he continues as the 25th president of the U.S. but only until September 6, 1901, when he was assassinated.

McKinley got 7,228,864 popular and and 292 electoral.

Bryan got 6,371,932 popular and 155 electoral.

(Remember - these vote totals were mainly from white men and a few blacks - women still couldn't vote.)

ELECTION #28, 1896. The NASTY-METER is 6.

QUOTE from the NY Times in 1896: "William Jennings Bryan is an irresponsible, unregulated, ignorant, prejudiced. pathetically honest and enthusiastic crank."

The second term for Grover Cleveland was a disaster but not necessarily his fault. The nation and the world went into a severe depression comparable to the Great Depression of the 1930s. America was changing and the political parties were changing with it. In 1896 the Republican Party would finally reach out to the blue-collar workers. The campaign was all about currency standards and precious metal - gold clashing with silver - and the sparks were about to fly.

The CANDIDATES in 1896.

REPUBLICAN: WILLIAM McKINLEY.

The fifty-three-year-old McKinley - of the starched shirt, double-breasted coat, red carnation, and mainstream American Methodism - had a long political record as a congressman and then governor of Ohio. He was smart, dependable, and upstnding. It you were a certain class of American, you felt reassured just by looking at the guy. His campaign was run by Mark Hanna, a powerfully astute political operator who pioneered many of the techniques used in modern cmpaigning.

DEMOCRAT: WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN.

Bryan was only 36 years old, the youngest man ever to receive a major party's nomination for president. He was known as "The Great Commoner" - a Nebraska native, evangelical Christian, and passionate speaker. He traveled 18,000 miles by train giving up to 36 speeches a day on behalf of a new currency standard and the down-trodden farmers. He ate six meals a day to keep up his strength and enjoyed relaxing rubdowns with gin, leading many people he met to believe he was a drunk.

The CAMPAIGN in 1896.

McKinley and Hanna (the Karl Rove of his day) remembered the lesson of Benjamin Harrison's presidential campaign in 1888. Harrison had promised so many favors to the eastern Republican Party bosses to get elected, he could hardly accomplish anything once he arrived in the White House. So McKinley and Hanna told the party bosses to go to hell. In a time of deep depression, the ordinary people were sick of party fat cats. They supported McKinley as the candidate against what was even then being called the machine - the grinding apparatus of party corruption.

Bryan advocated an expanded supply of money and silver coinage to alleviate the woes of working people. Bryan argued that "tight money" - money in which each dollar was backed by its equivalent in gold - was keeping farmers and those deeply in debt from being able to make a decent living, while the bankers who controlled the gold wallowed like Scrooges in chambers of wealth. In his famous speech at the convention he said, "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold."

The Republican media attacked Bryan and showed no mercy. Here are some quotes from 1896 Republican newspapers:
- "Bryan is a wretched, rattle-pated boy, posing in vapid vanity and mouthing resounding rottenness."
- "We can compare Bryan to the leaders of the
terror of France in mental and moral attitude."
- "Bryan's followers are hideous and repulsive vipers."
- "Bryan would be a madman in the White House."
- One doctor said in the NY Times, "I don't think Bryan is ordinally crazy...But I should like to examine him as a degenerate."

Mark Hanna had a great strategy. While Bryan was traveling all over the country Hanna had McKinley stay at home in Canton, Ohio. He had people come and visit him and had front-porch meeings with them. With the railroad tycoons behind McKinley they offered free rides to Canton and then these voters would submit questions the night before the meeting and McKinley would respond the next day in short, carefully scripted speeches. With most newspapers supporting McKinley it made for good press all over the U.S.
Millions of McKinley leaflets, buttons, and billboards were made. Hanna even had 1400 speakers ready to go into Democratic strongholds to give speeches boasting that McKinley was the man with the "Full Dinner Pail' and "The Advance Agent of Prosperity."

Bryan and the Democrats simply could not compete with Republican money. They attacked Hanna as "the most vicious, carnal, and unrelenting oppressor..in existence." The even said he was capable of murder to achieve his ends.

As is almost always the story in American politics, MONEY TALKED. Bryan's campaign money chest was anything but robust. From two different sources I've read different estimates of his campaign money. One source said he had $50,000 and the other source said he had less than a million. But they both agreed that McKinley had between $3,000,000 to $3,500,000 in which to wage his campaign. In any case it was no contest on who had the most money. Guess who the winner was.

The WINNER was WILLIAM McKINLEY and he became the 25th president of the U.S.

McKinley got 7,112,138 popular and 271 electoral.

Bryan got 6,508,172 popular and 176 electoral.

McKinley had managed the stupendous feat of keeping the upper middle class in his corner and garnering the votes of urban blue-collar workers, who would now form the core of the revised
Republican Party.

Bryan had polled well in the West. Bryan's brand of Populist politics would change the Democratic Party forever. Bryan called the 1896 election the "first" battle. He knew he would be back.

ELECTION #27, 1892. The NASTY-METER is 3.

QUOTE from the Republican bosses about Benjamin Harrison: "He was as glacial as a Siberian stripped of his furs."

The CANDIDATES in 1892.

REPUBLICAN: BENJAMIN HARRISON.

Harrison was the incumbent and had spent most of his four years as president being controlled by the Republican bosses who had helped him win in 1888. Many of the Republican bosses couldn't stand the prickly, born-again Christian. He had made them mad by appointing people to his cabinet based on their qualifications. His cabinet included people like Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, both future presidents. On the other side of the coin he had made them very happy by enacting the highest tariffs in U.S. history, about 48%, on foreign goods. Even though his Republican bosses said that "talking to him even in warm weather made a person feel like putting on winter flannels, galoshes, overcoat, mitts, and earlaps" he was renominated as the Republican candidate.

DEMOCRAT: GROVER CLEVELAND.

Cleveland was still very popular with millions of Americans - after all, this was the man whose baby daughter, Ruth, had a candy bar named after her. He really wanted a third nomination and second term - he got it and the race against the frosty Harrison was on.

The CAMPAIGN in 1892.

Harrison spent most of the campaign emphasizing his support of high tariffs and protecting American manufacturers. Unfortunately for Harrison there was a violent strike in Homestead, PA when Andrew Carnegie's (the steel tycoon) general manager, Henry Frick, cut steel workers wages by 20% and then hired armed Pinkerton agents to battle the strikers - this was a huge PR disaster for Harrison and may have cost him the election.

Cleveland was helped tremendously by the Homestead strike by solidifying support from the laboring classes. The strike proved that high tariffs did not translate to high wages for workers.

In fairness to Harrison he did not have his mind on the campaign as his wife was very ill - she died two weeks before the election.

The WINNER was GROVER CLEVELAND and he became the 24th president of the U.S. after being the 22nd president from 1885 to 1889.

Cleveland got 5,553,898 popular and 277 electoral.

Harrison got 5,190,819 popular and 145 electoral.

James Weaver got 1,026.595 popular and 22 electoral.

But change was in the wind in 1892. A new political party, called the POPULIST PARTY had sprung up to fight the Wall Street hold on America. The members of the new party were mainly farmers and factory workers whose platform called for fair wages, public ownership of railroads, telegraph and telephones, and a restoration of government "to the hands of plain people." Their candidate was a man named James Weaver from Iowa and he garnered over one million votes. Weaver had campaigned all over the country with a charismatic woman named Mary Elizabeth Lease. She was a tremendous speaker and decried a "government of Wall street, for Wall Street, and by Wall street." (I would say this sounds pretty familiar with the Occupy Wall Street protesters we're seeing in 2011 and 2012.)
She also told farmers "to raise less corn and more hell."

Party bosses were about to see the beginning of the end of their storied power. The 20th century would bring change to the middle classes and poor -and for the better.

ELECTION #26, 1888. The NASTY-METER is 7.

QUOTE from Matthew Quay, Republican campaign manager in 1888: "Benjamin Harrison would never know how many Republicans were compelled to approach the gates of the penitentiary to make him president."


The CANDIDATES in 1888.

DEMOCRAT: GROVER CLEVELAND.

The election of 1888 was close and dirty. Cleveland had labored hard for civil service reform and an end to high tariffs. He felt, as did many Democrats, that the high tariffs lined the pockets of the rich Republican tycoons while making the cost of goods prohibitive for the average working folks.
One unfortunate decision Cleveland made was to rely on his 75-year-old VP running mate, Allen Thurman, to compaign for him. During his speeches Thurman would forget what he was supposed to be talking about and start complaining about his rheumatism. (not exactly a good way for Cleveland to win votes.)

REPUBLICAN: BENJAMIN HARRISON.

Harrison was a distinguished Civil War vet and Indiana senator. He was aloof and the second choice of many Republicans at the convention. The 1884 nominee Blaine still had plenty of support but Harrison won due to his good bloodlines - he was the grandson of President William "Old Tippecanoe" Harrison. But just as important was he supported the high tariffs that made the Republicans tycoons so rich - and a lot of them were at the convention.
He was also a smarter campaigner, smarter than Cleveland anyway. He never left his Indianapolis home but what he would do is make a brief address to a crowd of people gathered in his front yard and then send if by telegraph to the Associated Press for nationwide dissemination. That way he was in the news everyday and they were his own carefully edited words. He wasn't going to make a blunder like the preacher did for Blaine four years earlier which cost him the presidency.

The CAMPAIGN in 1888.

The Republicans again attacked Cleveland about his sex life. While in office he had married Frances Folsom, the daughter of his former law partner. The Republican joy about the marriage was that she was only 21 years old and he was 49. Many Republicans were titillated by the incestuous nature of their union because she used to call Cleveland "Uncle Cleve." The Republicans referred to Cleveland as the "Beast of Buffalo" and even spread rumors that he beat her. Frances issued a rebuttal saying the Republican claim was nothing but "a foolish campaign ploy without a shadow of foundation."
And Harrison had the benefit of Republican money. Lots of it. The Republican campaign manager, Matthew Quay, remarked that he would "fry the fat" out of Republican businessmen who benefitted from the protective tariffs - and he did, collecting more than $3,000,000, much of which came from the American Iron and Steel Association. At the same time, mill workers received slips tucked into their pay envelopes threatening them with the loss of their jobs if tariffs were authorized and cheap foreign goods were to flood the country.

The WINNER was BENJAMIN HARRISON and he became the 23rd president of the U.S.

Even though Harrison lost the popular vote he won the electoral.

Cleveland had 5,534,488 popular and 168 electoral.

Harrison had 5,443.892 popular (about 90,000 less than Cleveland) but 233 electoral so he became president.

It took a lot of dirty tricks to win the election for Harrison. There was vote buying in Indiana, where Republican party operatives ("called floaters") were now paid as much as $15.00 a head to march people to the polls before they got too drunk to vote.
Another big Republican victory was in New York State, where 36 electoral votes went to Harrison after the Democratic candidate for governor made a deal with Harrison's people - the deal was: In return for enough Republican votes to give him the governorship, he would deliver New York to Harrison for president. (and he did)

The dirty tricks in this campaign were such that Republican bigwig Matthew Quay remarked pointedly, Harrison would never know how many Republicans "were compelled to approach the gates of the penitentiary to make him president."