By Staff
Steve Flowers
Franklin County Times
Most historians agree that the greatest upset in American presidential political history occurred exactly 60 years ago this fall.
Harry S. Truman's 1948 come from behind victory over Thomas Dewey is the hallmark of American political lore.
Harry Truman, a haberdasher in a Missouri clothing store was drawn into politics almost by accident.
He became a product of the infamous Pendergast Machine of Kansas City, when Mayor Pendergast sent Harry to the Senate from Missouri.
Truman had been a pretty undistinguishable senator when Franklin Delano Roosevelt surprisingly plucked him out of obscurity and made Truman his vice-presidential running mate in 1944.
Harry was one of the good old boys in Congress. A plain spoken regular guy. He was a member of the legendary Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn's "Board of Education" club.
Mr. Sam only invited certain people to join his exclusive club of congressmen and senators who met every afternoon in a private office beneath the Capitol to drink bourbon and branch water and talk politics.
They were in the middle of their libations one April afternoon in 1945 when the Secret Service came and quickly whisked Harry away to the White House. FDR had passed away and Harry Truman was sworn in as President.
Truman quickly showed he had a propensity for leadership. He displayed a Missouri sense for plain speaking and decisiveness.
He coined the famous line, "The buck stops here." Truman had no hesitance to drop the bomb on the Japanese to end the war. He also bravely fired the popular Gen. Douglas McArthur after he failed to follow Truman's edicts. Truman revealed to America and the world that he was no shirking wallflower.
After three years in the White House, Harry Truman had earned the reputation as one tough and scrappy fighter.
Therefore, his opponents should not have taken him lightly when they wrote him off in his bid for election in 1948. However, only one month prior to the November 2, 1948 election, every poll and pundit said that New York Governor Thomas Dewey, the three-term Republican governor of America's largest state, would win the presidency.
The Dixiecrats carried the four Deep South states of South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama. Thus, tearing away four states from the Democratic Party. These four states had been a vital part of the Democratic coalition for 60 years. The once solid south was taken away from Truman and the Democrats.
Truman was behind in every pivotal swing state when he began his famous "Whistle Stop" tour by train from one end of the country to the other. Harry, along with his wife Bess "The Boss" and daughter Margaret, boarded the dark green railroad car, the Ferdinand Magellan, and departed Washington's Union Station in September.
Dewey displayed an arrogance and cockiness during the campaign, while Truman's common man demeanor and fieriness connected with Americans not far removed from the Great Depression, which they believed was created by the Republicans.
Nevertheless, there was such an assumption that Dewey would win, on Election Day the Secret Service ditched Truman and were en route to protect Dewey. However, when the votes were counted that night Truman had dumbfounded all the pollsters, pundits and media with a stunning victory. Truman garnered 303 electoral votes to Dewey's 189.
The newspaper with the most egg on its face was the Chicago Daily Tribune. In one of the most famous photographs in American political history, Harry S. Truman stepped out of his train car in St. Louis and with a big grin on his face held up a copy of the Chicago Tribune with the glaring bold headline, "Dewey Defeats Truman."
The paper, trying to get a jump on things, had made one of the greatest blunders in American journalism.
The whole country believed Truman would lose, but "Give 'em hell Harry" proved them all wrong. The 1948 Presidential Race was truly one for the history books.
See you next week.
Steve Flowers is Alabama's leading political columnist. His column appears weekly in 70 Alabama newspapers. Steve served 16 years in the State Legislature. He may be contacted at www.steveflowers.us.