Who said dewey defeats truman

Truman, traveling by rail to Washington, stepped to the rear platform of the train and was handed a copy of the Tribune early edition. He had as low an opinion of the Tribune as it did of him. Truman held the paper up, and photographers preserved the moment for history. This story was originally published on Dec. Skip to content. Latest Featured. Most Read. Truman, trumanlibrary. It was the fall of , and incumbent President Harry S.

Truman was embroiled in a grueling campaign against Republican challenger, Thomas E. Newly arrived researcher Robert Kahn was working with founder and future ISR director Angus Campbell on a study of public attitudes toward foreign policy for the U.

State Department. As an afterthought, Campbell and Kahn threw in two questions to gauge the political interests and orientations of the respondents.

Kahn and Campbell ran their survey in October, finishing shortly before the Nov. Still, as the responses to the survey came in and Kahn posted them on a blackboard, a surprising trend began to emerge: The two candidates were running neck and neck, with Truman slightly ahead, and more than 20 percent of voters still undecided. Robert Kahn in Photo credit: ISR Archives. Kahn and his wife Bea hunkered down by their home radio on election night to listen to the results come in.

By late in the evening, broadcasters began questioning the predicted Dewey triumph; by morning, they were announcing one of the greatest upsets in American election history. As Truman, the newly re-elected president, headed from his home in Missouri back to Washington, D. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

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