FDR - Jean Edward Smith [386]
De Gaulle’s visit to Washington coincided with the run-up to the Democratic National Convention. In June the Republicans, meeting in Chicago, acclaimed Thomas E. Dewey (“Boy Orator of the Platitude”) as the party’s nominee on the first ballot.* Photogenic governor John Bricker of Ohio (“an honest Harding” in the words of William Allen White) was chosen as his running mate.77 Unlike 1940 (when Willkie ran) it was scarcely a compelling ticket. But after twelve years of Democratic rule perhaps it did not matter. Even though there was a war on, the midterm elections in 1942 had indicated the country was ready for a change—and FDR’s failing health was difficult to conceal.
In 1940 Roosevelt did not announce his decision to run for a third term until the convention voting was about to begin. This time he put his cards on the table early. In a message to party chairman Robert E. Hannegan of Missouri on July 11, well over a week before the delegates would assemble, the president said that although he did not wish to run, his duty compelled him to do so. “Reluctantly, but as a good soldier, I will accept and serve in this office, if I am ordered to do so by the Commander in Chief of us all—the sovereign people of the United States.”78
Roosevelt’s renomination was never in doubt. Three southern delegations—Louisiana, Mississippi, and Virginia—defected to Senator Harry F. Byrd, but the president won easily on the first ballot, 1,086–89.79 The fight was over the vice presidency. Wallace, who still mystified Democratic politicians, was a drag on the ticket. Ickes claimed he would cost 3 million votes. And FDR’s health could not be ignored. “If something happened to you, I certainly wouldn’t want Wallace to be president,” Morgenthau told Roosevelt two weeks before the convention.80
Roosevelt recognized the problem Wallace posed. In June he invited Bronx boss Edward J. Flynn and his wife to spend a weekend at the White House. FDR genuinely enjoyed Flynn’s company, who as national chairman in 1940 had organized the president’s third-term campaign. With Farley out of the picture, no one had a better grasp of electoral mechanics than Flynn, and Roosevelt valued his judgment.
Flynn and his wife were astonished at how FDR’s health had deteriorated. “We were both very unhappy about his condition and sat up for two hours discussing it.” When the question of a fourth term came up, Flynn urged the president not to consider it. He also spoke with Mrs. Roosevelt and begged her to use whatever influence she had to keep him from running again. “I felt that he would never survive the term.”81
Both Roosevelt and Eleanor dismissed Flynn’s concern. FDR believed it was his duty to run, and ER thought her husband’s victory was essential for the good of the country. “If elected, he’ll do his job well,” she wrote her son James. “And I think he can be kept well to do it.”82 Roosevelt asked Flynn to take the party’s pulse. The Solid South was taken for granted, but it was imperative to carry New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Jersey, and California. Would Wallace help or hurt the ticket?
Flynn, who personally admired Wallace, took soundings across the country. He told Roosevelt that notwithstanding the vice president’s strong support from organized labor, he would drive independents and middle-of-the-road voters to Dewey. There was no hope of carrying the key electoral states if Wallace remained on the ticket.83