FDR - Jean Edward Smith [235]
With that remark Coughlin stepped over the line. The Vatican summoned Coughlin’s bishop, Michael Gallagher, to Rome; L’Osservatore Romano accused Coughlin of provoking disrespect for authority; and, at the apparent suggestion of George Cardinal Mundelein of Chicago, a not-so-covert supporter of FDR, the papal secretary of state, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII), embarked on a two-month vacation in the United States and remained through the election.*
Roosevelt closed the campaign with a massive rally at Madison Square Garden on October 31. With the wind in his sails and well ahead in all opinion polls save one,* FDR all but proclaimed victory. “I prefer to remember this campaign not as bitter but as hard-fought. There should be no bitterness or hate where the sole thought is the welfare of the United States of America. No man can occupy the office of President without realizing that he is President of all the people.”
That said, Roosevelt did not disappoint the partisan crowd. After vigorously defending Social Security—“Only desperate men with their backs to the wall would descend so far below the level of decent citizenship” to suggest that the funds collected from workers would not be available when they retired—the president recited a litany of Republican abuse:
For twelve years this Nation was afflicted with hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing Government. The nation looked to Government but Government looked away.
Nine mocking years with the golden calf and three long years with the scourge!
Nine mocking years at the ticker and three long years in the breadlines!
Nine mad years of mirage and three long years of despair!
The applause, reported The New York Times, came in “roars which rose and fell like the sound of waves pounding in the surf.”50 FDR savored every moment. “Powerful influences,” he continued, “strive today to restore that kind of government with its doctrine that Government is best which is most indifferent. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.”
Absolute pandemonium. The vast audience in the Garden rose and cheered and then cheered some more. Roosevelt lowered his voice. “I should like to have it said of my first Administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match.” More sustained cheering and applause, then: “I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it these forces met their master.”51
ON MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, the day before the election, Farley provided Roosevelt a detailed assessment of the party’s chances. New Hampshire and Connecticut would be close. Also Michigan and Kansas. But he thought FDR would carry them. “I am still definitely of the opinion that you will carry every state but two—Maine and Vermont.”52 Since Maine had already voted, that meant a virtual clean sweep on election day.*
Roosevelt was incredulous. Participating as he always did in a preelection poll among the newsmen who covered his campaign, FDR put his electoral vote total at 360 to Landon’s 171. That was about two thirds the number Farley had given him. As the early returns came in Tuesday night, Roosevelt continued to be skeptical. When New Haven was reported to have gone Democratic by 15,000 votes, the president said it must be a mistake. “It couldn’t be that large.” He asked Missy to have the figures checked. She was back in two minutes. The figures were accurate. Roosevelt leaned back in his chair, blew a smoke ring in the air, and said, “Wow!” Farley had been right.53
When the ballots were tabulated, Roosevelt had won an unprecedented 60.79 percent of the popular vote.† He beat Landon 27,747,636 to 16,679,543—a margin 4 million votes larger than the Democratic