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.