Adlai Wins in 1952

He could never win, even if the fund-crisis destroys Nixon once and for all. The Dems had been in power for two decades, Truman's popularity was lower than Nixon's on 09/08/74, and he was more an intellectual than a politician, as a one-term governor. No one could beat Ike in '52, that was part of the reason Truman declined the final opportunity for a Round Three. Ditto for '56, or '60. Just not presidential material. Here's something from Schlesinger's RFK bio (who entered the federal scene in '56): "... spent three hours discussing the yield of atomic weapons to be banned... Should it be Symington or Anderson... couldn't make a decision." "On election day, he quietly marked his ballot for Eisenhower..."
 
I think Stevenson could have pulled it off, actually. If Nixon really was forced off the GOP ticket that would have cost Ike a lot of credibility with centrists and would have angered party conservatives ... a potentially devastating combination. Stevenson ran a good race all things considered.
 
Then Ike could just run against the Truman admin and easily win. In addition, Stevenson had a fund like Nixon's used for personal purposes, Sparkman had his wife on his staff, and Ike himself had used tax loopholes to increase his memoir royalties. That's why he broke the pencil in Nixon's telecast. Plenty of scandals to go around.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
Maybe have Eisenhower's running mate be Taft. Stevenson used an attack ad implying that if Eisenhower won, Taft would really be the power behind the throne. Perhaps if Taft had gotten the VP spot, it would have lent more credibility to the rumors and it would really alienate the centrists.

Or if not Bob Taft, maybe Bill Jenner or somebody like him; a near-paranoid anti-internationalist who advocated taking every former Truman employee to the trial and was convinced that the UN was destroying and "infiltrating" the educational system.
 
I think it's practically impossible for Adlai to beat Ike at any point. Maybe if the administration had a meltdown in the first term he might be able to pull it off in '56. The best way to do it might be to have Truman defeated by Dewey in 1948 (so he's running against Dewey--who is maybe not too popular because of Korea) or to have Roosevelt quit in 1940 (which gets rid of Truman entirely, perhaps).
 
The only way I can see Adlai Stevenson winning is if the Republicans nominate someone who has no chance of winning in the post-New Deal environment, i.e. Bob Taft.

If Taft runs on a platform of isolationism and reactionary conservatism, I think Stevenson has it made. It'd be like 1964, but a bit earlier. For the public at large, it would probably seem as a lesser of two evils, choice, though, considering how much the public detested the Truman administration.
 
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