ABSTRACT
When Walter Lippmann returned from Mexico in March 1928, a plan for resolving the church-state dispute under his arm, maneuvering had already begun for the Democratic presidential nomination. The World was not coy about its candidate. In Lippmann's view he was a "man of destiny" who exemplified the contest between the new people, clamoring to be admitted to America. Diligently Lippmann worked behind the scenes to reassure voters about Smith's Tammany background. Lippmann told Al Smith he had to take a definite stand on the issue. As the Democrats were meeting at Houston to choose their candidate, Lippmann drafted a telegram for Smith to send to the delegates urging repeal of the Volstead Act. Smith had a good deal to learn, and not only about foreign policy. While Lippmann may have thought Hoover would make a "distinguished and trustworthy" President, this was not winning any votes for Smith. And the World, after all, was supposed to be a Democratic paper.
