If Robert Taft Runs in 1952, Can Truman Win?

Truman was super unpopular is 1952, bottoming out at 22%, but many people weren't to keen on the Isolationist Taft running, fearful of letting the Soviet Union go unchecked. Could Truman hold together his party long enough for 4 more years? Or is America just exhausted after 20 years of Democrats in the White House, giving Taft the Presidency/kicking Truman out in the Primaries?

Any POD you want, mine is he doesn't criticize the Nuremberg Trials (which alot of people across the aisle hated him for) and/or Eisenhower has Health Problems severe enough that prevent him from running.
 
Truman was unpopular, with possibly the worst case of incumbency fatigue in American presidential history, whereas Taft was dull, dangerously isolationist, and at deaths door. Truman can win, especially if the stress of the campaign leads to the quicker onset of Taft's cancer, but it won't be with much enthusiasm. It could be an election where a popular independent (an embittered Ike?) could have a serious chance of victory.
 
Would Truman even win the nomination though? The POD for Taft winning could very well be after Truman dropped out, and even if Taft began doing better earlier, Kefauver would still probably do as good as he did OTL.
 
Truman was unpopular, with possibly the worst case of incumbency fatigue in American presidential history, whereas Taft was dull, dangerously isolationist, and at deaths door. Truman can win, especially if the stress of the campaign leads to the quicker onset of Taft's cancer, but it won't be with much enthusiasm. It could be an election where a popular independent (an embittered Ike?) could have a serious chance of victory.

No one, least of all Taft himself, knew he had cancer until the spring of 1953. Thus, his health wouldn't have been an issue in the general election.

In any event, Truman decided not to run after getting whipped by Kefauver in the New Hampshire primary.
 
So the general election could very well end up being Taft vs. Stevenson, since this situation has Taft as the GOP nominee and I can't see that affecting the Democratic process. In fact, the POD could be at the Republican convention, because Taft and Eisenhower were pretty much even then. Someone suggested Eisenhower running as an independent, if he did he might be able to win, but I don't know why he would.
 
I recall reading in David Reynolds' "America, Empire of Liberty" that in 1948 Truman seriously (or at least half-seriously) suggested that the Democrats run Eisenhower on the top-half of the ticket with Truman running as VP candidate. How would an Eisenhower/Truman team fare against Dewey in 1948 (probably a KO)? Against Taft in '52?
 
In my opinion a Truman win in 52' is impossible. However, and it pains me to say this as a Robert Taft fan, that if the Democrats ran Stevenson, then Stevenson would win.
 
In my opinion a Truman win in 52' is impossible. However, and it pains me to say this as a Robert Taft fan, that if the Democrats ran Stevenson, then Stevenson would win.

I've talked to at least one man involved in the campaign who thought otherwise - that Taft would have won, albeit rather narrowly. There was polling at the time that suggested as much.

Much would depend on how much success Taft's campaign would have had in tying Stevenson to the radioactive Truman. But even so, Taft came in with certain fundamental advantages: After 20 years in the White House - most recently with a deeply unpopular (however unfairly) incumbent - Democrats were facing a public naturally exhausted with them. And, let's be honest: Stevenson wasn't the most charismatic candidate to run for the office.

Taft, in turn, had to show that he could be trusted with the car keys, at least on foreign policy - which is, of course, why he was working so hard to moderate his views on things like NATO in public that summer.

Even so, what becomes critical for a successful Taft campaign is who he picks for a running mate. Because, unbeknownst to him, he'll be dead within half a year of taking office.
 
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