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Dewey, Thomas E. 1902-1971

GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK (1943-1955), REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (1944, 1948)

Famous Defeat.

In one of the most famous photographs in American political history, a beaming President Harry S Truman is shown displaying the headline of the first edition of the Chicago Daily Tribune following the 1948 presidential election. In a banner headline the newspaper trumpets Thomas E. Dewey's win over the incumbent Truman. The Tribune got it wrong, of course: Truman won by 2.2 million popular votes and 114 electoral votes. Dewey's defeat disappointed his formidable constituency in the Republican Party and set him politically adrift for much of the 1950s. In the 1940s, however, Dewey—along with Robert Taft and Arthur Vandenberg—was a politician whose name was synonymous with the Grand Old Party.

Successful Prosecutor.

Born in Owosso, Michigan, on 24 March 1902 to a middle-class family, Dewey was...

[The entire page is 764 words long]

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