ABSTRACT

When President Truman scored his upset victory over Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey, he mocked the election night certainty of the nation’s best-known radio commentator that Dewey would win. “While the President is a million votes ahead in the popular vote,” Truman said, imitating the clipped phrases and cultivated tone of radio’s best known voice, “we are very sure that when the country vote comes in, Mr. Truman will be defeated by an overwhelming majority.”