ABSTRACT
Franklin D. Roosevelt was the front-runner, the man everyone must beat. The prize seemed more tantalizing than ever after the Republican renomination of Herbert Hoover the week before. Roosevelt was cool. He told Farley to let the controversy simmer a while. But when Louis McHenry Howe arrived next morning, he insisted on a retreat. Louis's suspicion of the progressive extremes to which Raymond Moley's crew seemed prey, his firm belief in "balance," may well have made him happy to have conservatives like Bernard Baruch and Harry Byrd aboard to reef the sails and hold the skipper down. Louis's aides were shocked to see their little boss welcome the wily old operator with a smile and hand over a copy of Roosevelt's speech for Baruch's comments. Howe's major worry in this moment of victory was not the old enemies trooping into camp or slinking out of town to nurse their wounds.
