June 28, 1940: Wendell Willkie Is Nominated for President

June 28, 1940: Wendell Willkie is nominated for President at the Republican National Convention, at the Philadelphia Civic Center. It was the 1st political convention broadcast on television -- the Democratic National Convention would follow, 4 weeks later -- but that's not what was historic about this Convention.

Lewis Wendell Willkie was born on February 18, 1892 in Elwood, Indiana, 46 miles northeast of Indianapolis. The U.S. Army reversed his name to "Wendell Lewis" when he enlisted in World War I, and, since his family had always called him "Wendell," anyway, he never corrected the mistake, and later made that his legal name. He served, but did not see combat.

He dropped out of law school to enlist, and returned. He was hired by the law firm that represented Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio, but when he met company founder Harvey Firestone -- a friend of President Warren G. Harding, a Republican -- he was told he would never amount to anything because he was a Democrat.

In 1924, he was a Delegate to the Democratic Convention, the one that went to 103 ballots before Congressman John W. Davis was nominated. Despite being a Midwestern Protestant, Willkie had supported Governor Al Smith, because of Smith's opposition to the Ku Klux Klan, which had essentially taken over the Republican Party in Indiana. In 1925, Willkie got Klan members expelled from the Akron school board.

Willkie built a reputation as a great trial lawyer, representing public utilities. In 1932, he was a Democratic Delegate again, supporting Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was elected President. But in 1935, with FDR at the height of his New Deal, Willkie broke with him to represent Commonwealth & Southern Corporation against the Tennessee Valley Authority. In 1936, Willkie voted for FDR's Republican opponent, Governor Alf Landon. In 1939, he switched parties, becoming a Republican, becoming perhaps the 1st ex-Democrat to say, "I did not leave my party, my party left me."

In 1940, the Republicans figured, after 8 years of the New Deal, the American people would want to go back to conservative leadership. They didn't expect FDR to run for a 3rd term. But with Adolf Hitler taking over most of Europe, and threatening Britain, FDR knew he was the only American politician experienced enough to handle the Nazi leader.

The elections of 1932, 1934 and 1936 had brought many Republican figures down to defeat. But the economic downturn of 1938 knocked a few potential Democratic successors to FDR out of contention. Neither party really had a wealth of contenders. The leading Republican contenders were Senators Robert Taft of Ohio (son of President William Howard Taft) and Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan; and the District Attorney of Manhattan, Thomas E. Dewey.

Dewey was just 38 years old, and, though nationally famous due to his prosecution of organized crime figures, would have been a poor choice as nominee against the veteran FDR. But Taft was in only his 2nd year in the U.S. Senate. More importantly, Taft and Vandenberg were isolationists: Had they been elected, they would have done everything they could to keep America from going to war with Hitler. Therefore, millions of Americans, in both parties -- none more so than FDR -- wanted the Republicans to nominate an internationalist.

After the Nazi invasion of Poland started The War, Willkie gave speeches, including on radio, about the threat to America and the need to aid its allies. He transformed his image: Before, he was mocked, including by Republicans, as "the barefoot boy of Wall Street." As Chicago Sun-Times columnist Steve Neal, who wrote books about both him and FDR (and also Harry Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower), put it, his wartime speeches "transformed Willkie from a big-business critic of the New Deal into a champion of freedom. And it gave his candidacy new purpose."

Senator James E. Watson, of Willkie's home State of Indiana, was appalled that his candidacy was being taken so seriously. It wasn't because Willkie was the least-qualified Presidential nominee in GOP history. It was because he had so recently been a Democrat: "I may welcome the town whore into my church, but I wouldn't want him to lead the church choir." And Alice Roosevelt Longworth, daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt and widow of House Speaker Nicholas Longworth, owner of the sharpest tongue in Washington society, said that the Willkie campaign came "from the grass roots of ten thousand country clubs."

But Willkie had one key ally: Henry Luce, publisher of Time, Life and Fortune magazines. (Sports Illustrated came later, in 1954.) Luce was one of the biggest names in American conservatism, and he was an internationalist. Born in China as the son of Christian missionaries, he opposed the Nazis in large part because their Axis included the Empire of Japan, which was devastating China. He made sure the stands at the Civic Center were packed with people chanting, "We want Willkie!" This gave the "dark horse" the appearance of having more support than he actually did -- leading to more people switching their support to him, a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The brothers Gardner and John Cowles, publishers of Look magazine, and owners of the largest newspaper chain in the Midwest, sought to break the Taft/Vandenberg hold on the region. They asked Willkie to make a speech in St. Paul, the capital of Minnesota. For half an hour, Willkie read a very dry speech. At its end, he threw it to the ground, and said, "Some damn fool told me I had to read this speech. Now, let me tell you what I think." He did, and the audience perked up, and they loved it. The brothers published the speech, and it gained Willkie some support.

Furthermore, Hitler's victory in France, 2 weeks before the Convention, left only Britain between the Nazis and America. When the Delegates gathered in Philadelphia, they joked that Dewey was "the first American casualty of World War II."

Before a candidate could be nominated, a platform had to be approved. It split the difference between what the interventionists and the isolationists wanted: "We favor the extension of aid to all people fighting for liberty or whose liberty is threatened, as long as such aid is not in violation of international law or inconsistent with the requirements of our national defense."

Years later, someone discovered that the text was lifted, almost verbatim, from an ad that had appeared in several newspapers, including The New York Times, over the names of isolationist Congressmen, written and aid for by Nazi agents. But, even at the time, the nationally syndicated journalist H.L. Mencken, no stranger to epic put-downs, especially of the Republican Party, wrote that this was "so written that it will fit both the triumph of democracy and the collapse of democracy, and approve both the sending of arms to England and sending only flowers."

On the 1st ballot, Dewey led with 360 Delegates, to 189 for Taft, 105 for Willkie, 76 for Vandenberg, 74 for Governor Arthur James of Pennsylvania, and 196 scattered among other candidates. (James' name was placed in nomination because, in the old days, before Primaries became the way nominees were selected, the Governor of the host city's State, should he be of the same party, was usually given the courtesy of being nominated as a "favorite son") Dewey led, but he was nowhere near a majority of the Delegates, so more ballots would be needed.

On the 2nd ballot, it was Dewey 338, Taft 203, Willkie 171, Vandenberg 73, James 66. On the 3rd ballot, it was Dewey 315, Willkie moving up to 2nd with 259, Taft gaining so that he also had 259, Vandenberg 72, James 59.

Willkie took the lead on the 4th ballot, with 306, to Taft 254, Dewey 250, Vandenberg 61, James 56. On the 5th ballot, Dewey's support collapsed, leaving only 2 contenders: Willkie with 429 Delegates, and Taft with 377. On the 6th ballot, Willkie clinched a majority, with 655 to Taft's 318. Charles McNary of Oregon, the Senate Minority Leader, was nominated for Vice President.

Charles McNary

FDR was relieved. Not because he thought Willkie, whom he'd met a few times, would be easy to beat. Nor because he thought, should Willkie beat him, he would be a good President. It was because FDR knew that, no matter what, whoever was President from 1941 onward would oppose Hitler, and that was Issue Number One, to the point where, whatever people thought Issue Number Two should be, it was far behind in consideration.

Indeed, over the next 4 months, Willkie gave several speeches supporting an internationalist outlook. He did, however, rip FDR's policies more strongly than Landon had in 1936, proving that Republican voters will vote for any Republican, as long as he sufficiently rips the Democratic nominee.

The election was closer than FDR would have liked: He won 55 percent of the popular vote, to Willkie's 45. The Electoral Vote gave the appearance of a landslide, as FDR won 36 States, beating Willkie 449 to 82.

After the election, Willkie made 2 foreign trips as Roosevelt's informal envoy. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought America into The War, Willkie, as nominal leader of the Republican Party, gave the President his full support.

The War was serious enough that Vandenberg dropped his former isolationist policies, and became one of the leading advocates for building up the armed forces, to the point where one of the early bases of the U.S. Air Force, outside Santa Barbara, California, would be named for him. Taft supported the war effort in full, although, after The War, he opposed the formation of NATO. To his credit, Taft was opposed to the internment of Japanese Americans. To America's detriment, he was the only major American politician, of either party, who was.

Willkie had not entered the Republican Primaries in 1940. In 1944, he did enter the Primaries, but conservatives, angry at his being chummy with FDR, turned on him, and nominated Dewey, who had been elected Governor of New York in 1942.

Willkie died of a heart attack on October 8, 1944, before the election. His former running mate, McNary, had died earlier in the year. So, while the Republicans engaged in a whispering campaign that FDR was sick, or even dying, which turned out to be true, both of the Republicans' 1940 nominees failed to live to see the end of the term for which they had run.

After Willkie, the Republican Party took great care to nominate more qualified candidates for President: From 1944 to 2012, not counting the renomination of incumbent Presidents, they nominated 3 current or former Vice Presidents (Richard Nixon twice and George H.W. Bush), 5 current or former Governors (Dewey twice, Ronald Reagan of California, George W. Bush of Texas and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts), 3 Senators (Barry Goldwater and John McCain of Arizona, and Bob Dole of Kansas), and a 5-star General (Dwight D. Eisenhower).

They weren't always more qualified than their respective Democratic opponents, but, at least, they were qualified. Willkie may have been smart, but by no measure was he remotely qualified to be President. An advisor to the President, certainly: He proved that after the election. But the President himself, no. A nominee for the office must be qualified, or you risk having a disastrous Presidency.

In 2016, the Republican Party nominated Donald Trump, who had never previously run for elective office, and had never served in appointive office at any level of government. He and his supporters thought that was a plus. As it turned out, it was a huge minus.

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June 28, 1940 was a Friday. Muhammad Yunus, the Bangladeshi financier who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his "microcredit" initiative, was born on this day.

These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 4-1 at Yankee Stadium. Marius Russo went the distance for the win, Charlie Keller hit a home run, and Joe DiMaggio went 1-for-3.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers were leading the Boston Bees -- as the Braves had been known since 1936, but they would switch the name back the next season -- 2-1 at Ebbets Field, when the game was called due to rain after 8 innings.

* The Washington Senators beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Charlie Gelbert doubled home the winning run in the top of the 10th inning. Jimmie Foxx went 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. Ted Williams went 0-for-4 with a walk.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-2 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Neither of the Waner brothers, Paul or Lloyd, played in this game.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.

* The Detroit Tigers and the St. Louis Browns were rained out at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader 2 days later, on a Sunday. The Browns won the opener, 7-6. George McQuinn singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning. The Tigers led, 7-1 after 7 innings, when the game was called due to darkness. Over the 2 games, Hank Greenberg went 3-for-7 with a home run, 2 walks and 4 RBIs.

* And the New York Giants, the Chicago White Sox, the Cleveland Indians, and the Philadelphia Phillies were not scheduled.