alternatehistory.com

“The campaign strategy had been drawn up long in advance of election and was really finalized in Chicago. The whole campaign staff just didn’t realize quite how easy it was going to be”


“Campaign on the Issues, Focus on the Economy, Sell to the American Working Man”


“Both campaigns thought they could win if they merely focused on the policy issues and stayed on the defensive, or what was called the ‘shield tactic’ but rather quickly the whole election season became submerged in scandals and scathing remarks that strayed so far from the supposed ‘shield’ that it became known as the season of the sword.”


“Stevenson’s initial attempt to focus on the issues was quickly blocked by Warren’s ability to hold up his banner as a bipartisan solution builder, someone who had both worked with Roosevelt and yet had his own plans. It was clear that the defense of the New Deal and of the Democratic successes was intended to be the key card of the Stevenson campaign, but with Warren’s vigorous speaking tour putting heavy emphasis on his time as Governor and his own mini ‘California Deal’, this card was dead in the water”


“In my state, we took up what Roosevelt asked of us with pride. We built new highways, expanded our jobs, and gave to the public. We went further too, as I and many other Republicans pushed to make healthcare a right of the people of California. It cannot be said that I did not ensure that the people in my state were not provided for.”


“Despite the almost populist, Roosevelt style of policy brought forward by Warren, his party was always careful in the background to moderate the tone, to cater to business interests, and to keep the base in line. This was difficult though, as Warren often spoke on very specific proposals and very specific plans, which would often be hard to sell to bigger interests. A good example being his oft mentioned healthcare plans which, by the latter end of the campaign season had been cut to keep corporate interests happier.”

“WARREN REFUSES TO MEET WITH MCCARTHY”


“Looking back on it, the reporting on Warren and McCarthy was definitely played up by The Journal and by the press corps in general. We’d been looking to see McCarthy finally be put down but…well it is hard to say that is what happened, they didn’t meet but was it a refusal? I don’t know, the reporting was done though, and I stand by the facts.”


“Warren was very clear to all of us here that he would not be meeting with the Senator, he’d be stopping in various locations and would be speaking and that was it, no big dinners and no massive photo-ops. When we were contacted by the Senator’s staff, we were told to say that no time had been scheduled and while the Governor would appreciate the attendance and support of the Senator, there was little time put in place for a long photo session or proper joint meeting. That was that.”


“Of course, the Senator was incensed. But the entire party apparatus was there to quell his anger, and while he didn’t campaign as actively as anyone would have wanted, he was quiet for a while, when the Soviet rumor came out though, well he came right back onto the stage to attack Harriman with all his might, that whole thing was a blessing for our campaign.”


“HARRIMAN ACCUSED OF BEING SOVIET SPY”


“Leaked reports from the State Department indicate that ‘Harriman, during his tenue as Ambassador to the Soviet Union was given a bugged device that remained in his office for over 5 years’ and that ‘Harriman showed a gross negligence to the handling of information when dealing with the Soviets or in diplomatic affairs in general’. Though the leaks contents have not been checked against the State Department’s records nor confirmed by the Department, the contents have also not yet been denied and have raised a storm in the campaign as we are a mere three weeks from voting.”


“In today’s war against Communistic atheism, as you know, there is no choice but utter destruction of the enemy. And we have rooted one of their compatriots out. The inexperienced and reckless boy from New York, Averell Harriman, has sold himself to the enemy and has thrown away our secrets. To allow him anywhere near the White House is near traitorous in itself.”


“Yet but another attack against any opposition, any word of critique is met by McCarthy and his cronies by virulent attack, no more, it is time for the Senate to censor the Senator for his indecent conduct and down right partisan participation in this election.”


“I have long worked to oppose Soviet expansionism. I spent my waking hours in Moscow considering what policy line would be best to take to address the problem of Russian aggression. To now be called a fellow traveler does not just dishearten me, it disappoints me, as Americans we need to stand together unified against the Communist threat instead of falling into infighting.”


“Regardless of what was said, how it was said, by who it was said, the Communist spy attack stuck. Just a few weeks before the election and our campaign was struck. Stevenson did his best, going around to swingstates hitting the big points, his pro-labor speeches worked out well in some, I think. But Harriman went from our star on foreign policy who could dissuade any questions on diplomacy and world affairs, to a man we hid from cameras and secluded to speaking in his home state of New York.”


“By September of 1952, both sides had dropped their ‘shield’ plans and moved onto the proper field of battle. Stevenson’s campaign wisely moved onto attacking disunity in the Republican Party, silently praying that the split between old and new, McCarthy-ite and Progressive, would kill the GOP for them. But soon, the ‘sword’ was facing the other way, as Republicans railed against the Truman administration, against the corruption of the Democratic Party, against internal communist plots. The Democrats had come into 1952 expecting a landslide victory for the New Deal coalition and by November of that year had realized just how much they’d fallen.”


--------------------------------------------------------------