Past & Present: Harry Truman's 1948 Comeback Campaign
"George, how many do I have?" he asked when he finished. Elsey added the figures—340 electoral votes. Elsey later showed the tally to Clifford, who shook his head in wonderment that the president could be so deluded.
Truman was overly optimistic, but not so much as Clifford and Elsey thought. "He did not think he would win," Elsey later recalled. "He knew he would win." At around 9 p.m. on election night, Truman told an aide that he was going to sleep and to wake him if anything "important" happened.
Obama partisans and McCain partisans can choose their lessons from the Truman story: a warning against complacency, final courage for a flagging campaign. No one has yet matched the feat. The next chance comes Tuesday.
Robert Schlesinger is a deputy assistant managing editor at U.S. News & World Report. He is also the author of White House Ghosts: Presidents and Their Speechwriters (Simon & Schuster, 2008).
Reader Comments
Raving Rants Won't Get McCain Elected
When I read the sort of rambling, illogical, and unfactual diatribes against Obama that I have read by the thousands here and on other sites, I can see why thoughtful people are bailing on the Republican Party in droves. It is downright creepy and Neanderthal. The only sane people who chose to associate themselves with such slander are those who are using to gain an advantage for their own (very different) agenda. Divide and conquer!
I am cautiously optimistic that we have learned our lesson in the last eight years and maybe it won't work this time. A vote for Obama is a vote for sanity and hope.
Will the National Guard be mobilized?
Will the press report on mobilization of National Guard units to urban precincts on election day?
Trustworthy
Is it America's destiny, presidents Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and then Michelle Obama, in the tradtional values of our founding-fathers?? Barack Obama does not know when life of a baby begins in its mother's womb, he said he wouldn't want to "punish" his daughters with children. What if his mother decided to abort him, there wouldn't be a Barack Obama today, His "change" is socialism, much like that many Asian and European countries, and it doec not work over other nations, with a big well-fare system, big government-control, big spending, more regulations, and less freedom fo the people. Obama will raises taxes to pay for well-fare and finance his big spending. We need a tested and experienced leader or Commander-inChief in a dangerous world. Barack Obama is cocky, and so is Joe Biden. Can we trust his words, while he has a long record of flip-flops, and is still hiding many documents from us? Who is the real Obama, with ties to the radical extremist leftist terrorists? Is he a smoker, who does not understand the effect of addiction to nicotine, after all this is the twenty-first century information age?? Maybe it is our destiny to have Joe Biden or Michelle Obama as future president, after all.
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