Part 4 Chapter 14 Summary

Truman faced not only a challenge from Dewey, but also from two third-party candidates. Strom Thurmond was running as a segregationist and Henry Wallace as an extremely liberal "thinking man's" candidate. These two candidates would take votes away from Truman and divide Democrats. Everyone thought Truman would lose the South to Thurmond and New York to Dewey. Ordinarily these regions would be Democratic.

When the campaign began, the odds against Truman were the greatest in the history of the presidency. The Roper Poll had Dewey ahead by so much (44% to 31%) that it stopped wasting money on more polls. The President's low standing in the polls made it hard for him to raise money, especially from big corporate sources. At several points in the campaign, he had to appeal personally to small groups in the White House for money or else stop...