Dewey Defeats Truman The Famously Mistaken Headline

On November 3, 1948, the morning after the 1948 presidential election, the Chicago Daily Tribunes headline read, DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN. Thats what the Republicans, the polls, the newspapers, the political writers, and even many Democrats had expected. But in the largest political upset in U.S. history, Harry S. Truman surprised everyone when he, and not Thomas E. Dewey, won the 1948 election for President of the United States. Truman Steps In A little less than three months into his fourth term, President Franklin D. Roosevelt died. Two and a half hours after his death, Harry S. Truman was sworn in as President of the United States. Truman was thrust into the presidency during World War II. Though the war in Europe was clearly in the Allies favor and nearing an end, the war in the Pacific was continuing unmercifully. Truman was allowed no time for transition; it was his responsibility to lead the U.S. to peace. While completing Roosevelts term, Truman was responsible for making the fateful decision to end the war with Japan by dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; creating the Truman Doctrine to give economic aid to Turkey and Greece as part of a containment policy; helping the U.S. make a transition to a peacetime economy; blocking Stalins attempts to conquer Europe, by instigating the Berlin airlift; helping create the state of Israel for Holocaust survivors; and fighting for strong changes toward equal rights for all citizens. Yet the public and newspapers were against Truman. They called him a little man and often claimed he was inept. Perhaps the main reason for the dislike for President Truman was because he was very much unlike their beloved Franklin D. Roosevelt. Thus, when Truman was up for election in 1948, many people did not want to  see the little man run. Dont Run! Political campaigns are largely ritualistic.... All the evidence we have accumulated since 1936 tends to indicate that the man in the lead at the beginning of the campaign is the man who is the winner at the end of it.... The winner, it appears, clinches his victory early in the race and before he has uttered a word of campaign oratory.1— Elmo Roper For four terms, the Democrats had won the presidency with a sure thing—Franklin D. Roosevelt. They wanted another sure thing for the presidential election of 1948, especially since the Republicans were going to choose Thomas E. Dewey as their candidate. Dewey was relatively young, seemed well-liked, and had come very close to Roosevelt for the popular vote in the 1944 election. And though incumbent presidents usually have a strong chance to be re-elected, many Democrats didnt think Truman could win against Dewey. Though there were serious efforts to get famed General Dwight D. Eisenhower to run, Eisenhower refused. And many Democrats were not happy when Truman became the official Democratic candidate at the convention. Give Em Hell Harry vs. the Polls The polls, reporters, political writers—they all believed Dewey was going to win by a landslide. On September 9, 1948, Elmo Roper was so confident of a Dewey win that he announced there would be no further Roper Polls on this election. Roper said, My whole inclination is to predict the election of Thomas E. Dewey by a heavy margin and devote my time and efforts to other things. Truman was undaunted. He believed that with a lot of hard work, he could get the votes. Though it is usually the contender and not the incumbent that works hard to win the race, Dewey and the Republicans were so confident they were going to win—barring any major  faux pas—that they decided to make an extremely low-key campaign. Trumans campaign was based on getting out to the people. While Dewey was aloof and stuffy, Truman was open, friendly, and seemed one with the people. In order to talk to the people, Truman got in his special Pullman car, the  Ferdinand Magellan, and traveled the country. In six weeks, Truman traveled approximately 32,000 miles and gave 355 speeches. On this Whistle-Stop Campaign, Truman would stop at town after town and give a speech, have people ask questions, introduce his family, and shake hands. From his dedication and strong will to fight as an underdog against the Republicans, Harry Truman acquired the slogan, Give em hell, Harry! But even with perseverance, hard work, and large crowds, the media still didnt believe Truman had a fighting chance. While President Truman was still on the road campaigning,  Newsweek  polled 50 key political journalists to determine which candidate they thought would win. Appearing in the October 11 issue,  Newsweek  stated the results: all 50 believed Dewey would win. The Election By election day, the polls showed that Truman had managed to cut Deweys lead, but all media sources still believed Dewey would win by a landslide. As the reports filtered in that night, Truman was ahead in the popular votes, but the newscasters still believed Truman didnt have a chance. By 4:00 the next morning, Trumans success seemed undeniable. At 10:14 a.m., Dewey conceded the election to Truman. Since the election results were a complete shock to the media, the  Chicago Daily Tribune  got caught with the headline DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN. The photograph with Truman holding aloft the paper has become one of the most famous newspaper photos of the century.