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.