November 4, 1952: General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the great American hero of World War II, is overwhelmingly elected President. The Republican nominee won 442 Electoral Votes, while the Democratic nominee, Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, won only 9 States for 89 Electoral Votes. "Ike" won the popular vote, 55 to 44 percent, ending 20 years of Democratic governance in the White House.
As the leading General of the U.S. Army from the D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944 to the end of "The War" (for those who lived through it, like my grandparents, always Capital T, Capital W), Eisenhower was expected to follow in the footsteps of previous American Generals: George Washington, Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Franklin Pierce, Ulysses S. Grant and Theodore Roosevelt (who never got promoted from Colonel to General).
Of course, some Generals tried to become President, and lost: Winfield Scott, Winfield Scott Hancock, Leonard Wood (who didn't even get nominated) and Douglas MacArthur (who seemed to want it more than Ike, but was never seriously considered). And then there those who didn't even run: William Tecumseh Sherman said, "I will not run if nominated, and will not serve if elected." This would be followed by John J. Pershing; and, after Eisenhower, by Colin Powell and Norman Schwarzkopf. And by William Westmoreland, who never would have had a chance.
But in the next election, Ike didn't run. He didn't even say what party he belonged to. Both parties sought him out. Harry Truman, the incumbent, a Democrat, who became President upon the death of Franklin Roosevelt in 1945, seemed willing to step aside and not amount to a term of his own, if Ike would run as a Democrat. He wouldn't, and he and Truman had a falling-out.
In 1952, Ike looked around at the potential candidates, considered their ability to both maintain American prosperity and stand up to the Communist world, and thought that he could do a better job than any of them. So he ran, as a Republican.
The Party regulars saddled him with a running mate they liked, but almost nobody else did: Senator Richard Nixon of California. In less than 6 years in Congress, including a year and a half in the Senate, Nixon had already generated a reputation as the slimiest, most dishonest major politician in America. His opponent in his 1950 Senate election, Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas, gave him the nickname that stuck with him for the rest of his life: "Tricky Dick."
And while nothing was going to derail Ike's election, Nixon almost derailed his place on the ticket, with a scandal that forced him to take up half an hour of prime-time television, and detail his assets and debts, so people could see he wasn't corrupt. He mentioned the gift of a dog, and it became known as "The Checkers Speech." After seeing it, Ike told him, "Dick, you're my boy!"
The Democrats nominated Stevenson after a fine 1st term as Governor, with Senator John Sparkman of Alabama as his running mate. (Stevenson's grandfather, also named Adlai Ewing Stevenson, had been Grover Cleveland's Vice President from 1893 to 1897.)
"Let's face it," Stevenson said in his Convention speech. "Let's talk sense to the American people." But they weren't willing to listen. It didn't help that, unlike all previous major-party nominees except one (James M. Cox in 1920), he was divorced. Then again (as with Cox), it wouldn't have mattered if he were happily married.
Because, after 20 years of Democratic leadership, the party had grown stale in office, and the Republicans used the slogan, "It's time for a change." As far as I know, this was the first time it was used. And Ike was way too popular: The biggest fashion accessory of 1952 -- and 1956, as it turned out -- was an "I LIKE IKE" button. (The counterpart, "WE NEED ADLAI BADLY," didn't get far.)
Stevenson was bald -- but so was Eisenhower. And Stevenson had a broken nose, and seemed perpetually sad and tired, while Ike always seemed to be smiling, except when he was talking about standing up to Communism. The Republicans ran on a formula they called "K1C2," for "Korea, Communism, and Corruption."
In the end, Stevenson asked, "How you expect to defeat a man called Ike with a name like Adlai?" He never figured that out in 1956, either, and lost to Eisenhower by an even wider margin.
The Republicans also won both houses of Congress, winning 22 seats in the House of Representatives and 2 seats in the Senate. Among the new Senators were Democrats John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts, Stuart Symington of Missouri, Mike Mansfield of Montana, and Henry "Scoop" Jackson of Washington; and Republican Barry Goldwater of Arizona.
The City of Chicago eventually honored both candidates with Expressways: Interstate 290, heading west out of the city, then north, is the Dwight D. Eisenhower Expressway; while the Cook County section of Interstate 55, heading southwest, is named the Stevenson Expressway.
*
November 4, 1952, like most American Election Days, was a Tuesday. The baseball season was over, football was in midweek, and neither the NBA nor the NHL had any games scheduled. So there were no scores on this historic day.
No comments:
Post a Comment