Pic Of The Moment: Grassley You Can't Be Serious

[merrily]

61. Times haven't changed that much. Candidates for POTUS still do whatever to realize their

ambition.

Truman wanted Eisenhower to run as a Democrat--and the candidate Truman backed (Stevenson) got the nomination that year, even though Kefauver had won all but three primaries.. Eisenhower refused, choosing instead to run as a Republican. Did he do that because he thought, after 20 years of Democrats in the Oval Office had a better chance of being elected, or did he do that because he really believed the Republicans were better for the country than Democrats? We will never know for sure.

However, if Ike believed the Republican Party was better, then he was willing to sell out the country for who as many years as Brennan might be on the Court in order to improve his (Eisenhower's) own chances of re-election, which were very high anyway. (The only states Ike lost in 1952 were nine Southern States, the "Solid South" then being solidly Democratic.) And, if he didn't believe Republicans were better for the country, why did he, as a World War II hero and NATO commander, help them out by running as a Republican?

Anyway, the consistent strain is that he did what he thought would help him get elected, even if it was not, in his mind, that great for the country. And many politicians still do that.