It was election the Republicans could not lose. The Democrats had been in power since March 4, 1933, and Harry Truman was very unpopular. Adding to Truman's woes was the fact that his party split into three factions. The "Dixie-crats" led by Strom Thurmond walked out of the Democratic convention because of Truman's stand on civil rights. Henry Wallace, who saw himself as FDR's logical successor, (note the button with the profile of FDR behind Wallace), pulled a lot of the liberal vote. Thomas E. Dewey looked like "the little man on the top of a wedding cake" to on observer, but it didn't matter. He was going to win. One Chicago newspaper even had a banner headline "Dewey Defeats Truman." But it didn't happen. Dewey played not to lose, so, of course he did. Thurmond took the "solid South" from Truman, and Wallace may have cost Trumann New York State although, since Dewey was from New York, most presidential candidates don't lose their home state unless they do very badly. Yet Truman won. Here are some buttons from the 1948 campaign. Most Truman buttons have value. The campaign didn't have much money and couldn't issue that many pieces. It is interesting to note that Dewey's running mate was Earl Warren, who would later be the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Warren had been the Governor of California. The Philadelphia Phillies button in the center celebrated the pennant winning 1950 team. It's out of place, but I have to store it somewhere. The Phillies were my father's favorite team. He was bitterly disappointed when the Yankees beat them 4-0 in the 1950 World Series.
The Westminster College button is important because it marked the time when Winston Churchill referred to the "Iron Curtain" that had descended over Eastern Europe. It used to be an important piece, but the end of the cold war has lowered its value.
These two buttons are fun given the results of the election. No one knew Dwight Eisenhower's political party in 1948. Truman asked to run for president as a Democrat at one point with Truman as his running mate.
