ABSTRACT
As a dozen members of the Franklin D. Roosevelt team pushed and pulled at John Garner, at his backer William Randolph Hearst, at their Texas and California delegations, Farley plodded wearily to Room 1702. The remarkable partnership began in 1912. But long before they knew each other, Roosevelt and Howe were being drawn together slowly by a deep web of circumstance. At 9:15 a.m., July 1, 1932, the Democrats, who had come to Chicago to nominate a sure winner, stumbled exhausted from the stifling, trash-strewn hall where they had spent the night. Three long ballots had led to a crisis for the candidate who had been a front-runner for over a year. Roosevelt had come into the convention with 661J2 votes. Twenty years of work was about to shatter into sad regrets for Franklin Roosevelt and Louis Howe. One more ballot would make him President or release a flood of desertions that would fatally undermine his cause.
