“Dewey Beats Truman” 61-years Ago Today.

Sixty-one years ago today November 2, 1948 President Harry S. Truman completed the biggest election upset in America’s political history winning reelection. Despite oddsmakers giving 15 to 1 against him FDR’s final vice president defeated New York Governor Thomas Dewey.

Radio and the few television sets that existed then all morosely broadcast how bad would be Truman’s political demise. Truman went to bed at 9PM to awaken around midnight to more bad news and fell asleep again only to be reawakened at 4AM by an aide to the news he was 2 million votes ahead. “We got em’ beat!, “ Truman reportedly said, and went back to sleep.

Famously many of the nation’s newspaper’s early editions blared “Dewey Beats Truman.”

Truman campaigned in a 22,000 mile whistle stop campaign across the nation on a special train in a railroad car with the unlikely name Ferdinand Magellan to cheers of “Give Em’ Hell, Harry” – of course, he did.

Republican Dewey was the odds-on favorite from the start amid all sorts of conjecture about Truman’s in-abilities and the rumor he was only picked by FDR as the least offensive choice to keep third term Vice President fWallace rom succeeding him, and as a place keeper for the Democrats as FDR’s health was failing. Wallace was rumored to have been closely tied to Soviet communism, and many worried FDR’s death would open the door for a strident communist sympathizer in the Oval Office. In fact Wallace campaigned against Truman and Dewey  on the Progressive Party ticket which was at least the nominal communist party USA ticket and got 3% of the vote. Southerner Strom Thurmond ran as a State’s Rights Democrat also getting 3%. Truman won with 49.8% to Dewey’s 45.1%.