Why was the 1948 presidential election unique

Indeed, a public opinion poll taken in December revealed that only 35 percent of those surveyed supported his handling of the presidency. Beginning in , Truman worked assiduously to build support for his candidacy among key segments of the Democratic Party. He repaired his relationship with labor by vetoing the Taft-Hartley bill, courted black Americans by coming out in favor of civil rights, and continued to embrace programs like national health insurance, a higher minimum wage, and a federal housing measure dear to party liberals.

Truman's anti-Soviet foreign policy won him support among Americans with roots in Eastern Europe and among anti-communist liberals.

His decision in May to recognize the new state of Israel further solidified his relationship with American Jews. Just as important, by , Truman had begun to employ a more relaxed, folksy, and sometimes fiery speaking technique. He combined both style and substance in launching effective attacks against the Republicans.

Midway through , however, Truman's popularity among American voters still languished. Divisions within the Democratic Party hurt Truman's chances for re-election in Truman's weakness as a candidate led some Democrats to consider offering the party's nomination to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, whom they incorrectly believed to be a Democrat.

On the eve of the Democratic convention, Eisenhower strongly denied any interest in the nomination, much to Truman's relief. Two other challenges would prove more troubling to Truman's candidacy. In January , Truman's former secretary of commerce and vice president during Roosevelt's third term , Henry Wallace, announced his intention to run for President as a member of the Progressive Party.

In September , Secretary Wallace had delivered a speech critical of the administration's increasingly hard-line foreign policy towards the Soviet Union.

Truman asked for Wallace's resignation, which he received. As a third-party candidate, Wallace, who for many years had been darling of the left-wing of the Democratic Party, threatened to rob Truman of the progressive vote. Truman also faced the prospect of losing the votes of the conservative, southern wing of the Democratic Party, which threatened to bolt over the President's public embrace of African-American civil rights.

He hoped he could keep southerners in the Party by making his support for civil rights more rhetorical than substantive, a strategy similar to that employed by President Roosevelt. At the Democratic National Convention in July , however, Truman's approach collapsed after pro-civil rights Democrats—led by Minnesota's Hubert Humphrey and anti-communist liberals from the organization Americans for Democratic Action ADA —won a strong civil rights plank for the party's platform.

Truman was willing to accept the plank, holding out hope that southerners would stay in the party. He was wrong; the entire Mississippi delegation and half of the Alabama delegation walked out of the convention.

The southerners that remained did so only to vote against Truman's nomination. It nominated Governor J. Douglas turned down the vice presidential slot—as his running mate. In a fiery speech accepting the nomination, Truman declared "Senator Barkley and I will win this election and make these Republicans like it—don't you forget that! Of course, Truman did not expect the Republicans to pass his program, nor should they have done so. But Truman's challenge did energize his fellow Democrats, putting the Republicans on the defensive and highlighting Truman's campaign strategy—to run against the Republican Congress.

It was a strong ticket. Dewey had run in against FDR and lost a close race; he remained young, popular, and progressive. Strongly anti-communist, he was an internationalist in foreign affairs.

Urban machines delivered the cities. What was the biggest factor in President Truman successfully winning the election of ? Was it due to his campaign strategy, the failure of his opposition, or public support for his actions of ? The Election of Download Handouts.

Memo from Clark Clifford to Harry S. Truman, November 19, opens in a new window. Suggestion to call a special session of Congress opens in a new window. Letter to Clark Clifford, October 5, opens in a new window.

Polling trends of opens in a new window. The letter would eventually become Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. She finished the mile, yard course in Waitz had won her first marathon in New York in Like many presidents before and after him, he Lawrence, ends in the acquittal of Penguin Books.

Gwendolyn Graham is sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for killing five elderly female residents of the Alpine Manor Nursing Home near Grand Rapids, Michigan. Following the overthrow of his government by South Vietnamese military forces the day before, President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother are captured and killed by a group of soldiers.

The death of Diem caused celebration among many people in South Vietnam, but also lead to This was the first Live TV. This Day In History.