In 1948 when Truman ran against Dewey, ballots were all paper and took a long time to count. That year the racist Strom Thurmond ran on the Dixiecrat Party line, Henry Wallace ran as a Progressive because Truman wasn’t liberal enough, and Dewey, a former New York governor noted for his battles against corruption, was the Republican nominee.
It looked bad for Truman, and near midnight there was no clear indication of a winner. In fact, one Chicago newspaper headlined its morning edition “Dewey Wins.” I’m reasonably sure that every reader of this post remembers the picture of a laughing Truman holding up the newspaper.
In any case, sometime during the evening of election day, Truman announced that he was going to bed--he’d find out who won in the morning.
I spent the entire day working at polling places in Lehighton handing out literature and talking up the candidacy of Helen Torok, who was running for borough council. She is a great candidate, and I have my fingers crossed, but it is 10:00 p.m., the results aren’t in, and I’m exhausted from standing outside in the cold all day.
I’m announcing that I’m going to bed. I hope our results are as good for us as Truman’s were for him.
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