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.