he earned the job in new york under tom dewey. herbert brownell, the attorney general under eisenhower was dewey's campaign manager and the list is a very long one. >> osmond in richmond, virginia, you're next. >> caller: this is a very interesting subject. hello? >> yeah, you're on the air, go ahead. >> caller: thank you, go ahead, this is a very interesting subject. >> i'm sorry, can you hear me? >> we can. >> caller: this is a very interesting subject. this was the first presidential election, my mother a life long republican, voted in. and one of the things she told me was that she found dewey unattractive because of his -- she mentioned his greasy hair and his mustache. if you can comment on that. but my main interest was understanding the role a future major player in the democratic party, lyndon johnson, played in this election. >> well, l. b.j. was trying to get elected himself to the senate in texas so he was not a significant factor in the national -- in the presidential race. dewey's appearance is revealing in a number o

tom dewey, tom dewey in the negative. now we haven't talked much to about thomas dewey. dewey was the governor of new york, a pretty popular guy. he had been the nominee of the republican party in 1944. he had led on the first three ballots in 1940 before losing to wendell willkie, wilkie quite remarkable because this year he is only 46 years old. that is about the age obama was. that is only 3 years older than jack kennedy was. he is a young man. and he has been on the verge of power and national notoriety even before the 1940. he is in asked district attorney. he is not even governor. he was the district attorney of manhattan. he was mr. district attorney, crime buster, the guy who went after the mob, put him in jail and went after the wall street guy, put them in jail. he did it all. he was spectacular as the district attorney but as governor he begins to trim his sails. he is looking at the polls and the candidate the same way. even though he is the purported front-runner and he is the front-runner in terms of delegates at this point, he is not particularly loved in

record of association, creative foreign policy association that he had with tom dewey. >> i would agree with that. he was maybe the most senior of a group of dad's advisers who went to washington. you mentioned jim haggerty, tom stevens, who was appointment secretary, and there were quite a number of them. >> one thing we haven't mentioned is the thruway. one of governor dewey's great innovations was the new york state thruway, which now bears his name, a road without a traffic light from new york city to buffalo, which probably did more for upstate new york economic development than everything since. but the man who built the thruway was named bert talami. burt talami is the man who went on to build the interstate highway system under dwight eisenhower. >> right. >> i want to throw out a couple names here as we finish. hubert humphrey and tom dewey's relationship with him. >> it's one of the many surprising aspects of a very surprising life. in 1964 tom dewey was at the white house. lbj wanted to get him to chair a national crime commission. in any event, he begged off of that, but he

tom dewey had met with young richard nixon, the junior senator from california, early in 1952 at his suite in new york city, and offered, why isn't he running yet! and dewey offers him the vice presidential nomination. nixon helped to deliver, or he was going to deliver the california delegation, but it turned out he didn't have to, the fair play amendment threw it to eisenhower. and nixon is perfect for this. when you think of a vice presidential candidate, you want him to fill gaps. young. conservative so the presidential candidate can be a moderate, brings a western state in, energetic, the second leading public face for anti-communism in the country at the time. nixon was an absolutely perfect choice. he doesn't look too excited, does he? [ laughter ] on the other side of the coin, i type in democratic convention, and what do i get? the successful movement to draft eisenhower. what's with wikipedia anyway. this myth also needs to be undone, but it's kind of harder than it is with ike. because ike was a candidate and stevenson never was. there was a draft movement. it was run by wa

as a man, district attorney or governor, tom dewey is calm, neat, painstaking and deadly efficient." and so, dewey has a reputation for being tough. and seven, he was a party leader who reunited a weak and divided and once powerful state gop organization. the new york republican party had, in fact, been powerful at one point. but since 1920, the party had fallen on hard times. really go all the way back to 1912 or 1910, when charles evans hughes left the governorship and went to the supreme court. the republican party in new york began to falter. it was weak, it was divided, it was petty. and dewey grew up, really, as the politician in the shadow of that chaos, in the midst of that division and squabbling in new york. and he is very interested in moving beyond that, uniting the various republican factions -- conservatives, liberals, moderates -- and bringing them together as one powerful unit. he does a good job of this. he will organize a top-down organization. as we talked about just a moment ago, dewey is tough. and he is going to be a very efficient in administration, and there is

by 1949 the president had already been here four times and following the defeat of tom dewey the navy realized the president would be coming back much more often. they hired the premier interior decorator from miami beach, and so the house reflects the remodel of 1949. mr. lassi temp r made no communication with the president, he made something that would be acceptable to the guests that would come to the president and he picked colors popular at the time. green walls, taupe, grays, red. the house, of course, had 20 years of admirals living in it from 1953 to 1974 so many of the things that had been done for truman were discarded. it was our task to restore the house as it was. and, of course, although we had the records of what was bought, they didn't necessarily tell us who it was from. so we found this fabric on the drapes and couch. it turned out to be a waverally print. none of his knew that. we found it on e-bay. the paintings on the wall, i had been led to believe were stolen until one day we found a notation that they had been loaned by the naval academy. the naval academy had

dwight eisenhower got 12 million more votes than tom dewey. 1820s. >> why? >> because you had two, in many ways, outstanding candidates. each in their own way who were able to excite the electorate in a way that i don't think we've seen in this country for some time. >> here's a little bit more of adlai stevenson at the 1952 convention. >> what does concern me of both parties is not just winning this election, but how it is won. how well we can take advantage of this great quadrennial opportunity to debate issues sensibly and soberly. i hope and pray that we democrats, win or lose, can campaign not as a crusade to exterminate the opposing party, as our opponents seem to prefer, but as a great opportunity to educate and elevate a people whose destiny is leadership. let's talk sense to the american people. let's tell them the truth that there are no games without pains, that we are now on the eve of great decisions. captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2008 captioning performed by vitac campaign for president. he claimed he spent to

tom dewey, and, of course, robert taft, who is hoping the party returned to him. >> we get in a little trouble when we draw analogies. dewey was the prosecutor from new york who overrated himself. we often have new yorkers come out and say they are going to win, especially when they have a legal background. taft was mr. republican, people had heard of him before. taft was a name. that was not particularly new. herbert hoover was a wonderful man. he was getting in the way of the progress of the party because he kept wanting to run again. this time was probably past. what was exciting about willkie was he went to hear herbert hoover and they could not believe that harbor hoover would hog the nomination. in that way, willie was a grass roots. he, himself, was not of the grass. he was chosen by people who were voting against the party. the other names were "the parti." willkie came in as somebody different, not what we expected. >> he retired and an exciting man. i think for many people, it was none of the above. it was the perfect atmosphere for an outsider who promises and looks very dif

hubert humphrey almost put the boss, the old man, as we called him, into the history books alongside tom deweythe stake was the democratic part and all those democrats started coming home from wallace to humphrey, and we got them all. it wasn't until four years later after the white house that we put together the 49-state new majority. we did have a final nixon belief, and he wrote, that the final telethon that we had -- let me tell you how that worked. we had a telethon four hours before the election. they would get the questions would come into the nixon girls and the volunteers, and they would write the questions down, and they'd take them into a back room where i was, and where shelly and rosewoods and major -- rose woods and major acker were, and the questions would come in and i'd say, well, we i -- we can frame this question a little better. and then they would type them up, then send them out to bud wilkinson, and he would pitch the fast balls down the center for richard nixon. and it was produced by someone, a 28-year-old who had broken his foot in a jump parachute jump ,, in the past

that is something that tom dewey had not done in 1944 under somewhat similar circumstances. go there. in some ways, he paid a price for that. >> you are right. the nuclear test ban, which was very unpopular point of view to take in 1956, he took it very courageously because he believed in it deeply. he said -- someone asked what the weapons would be in world war iv, and he said there would be sticks and stones. >> between 1952 and 1956, was adlai stevenson and going to get the nomination again? >> i would have to answer that with a yes and no. he hoped that might someday be president, but he also knew that if you ran against president eisenhower again, the odds were very much against them. i was one of the few people around him that kurds to and not to run in 1956. he felt an obligation to the democratic party. >> here is a little bit of adlai stevenson at the 1956 convention. >> i come here on a solid mission. -- solemn mission. i accept your nomination and your program. [applause] i pledged to every resource of mind and strength that i possess to make a good win for our co

by 1949, the president had been here four times, and following the defeat of tom dewey, the navy realized president would be coming back much more often. they hired the premier decorator of miami beach, and so the house is a remodel of 1949. the designer made no consultation with the president. he simply wanted to create a timeless venue, something that would be acceptable to the guests that would be coming to see the president, and he picked colors that were popular at the time, green walls, taupe, grays, tomato red. the house had 20 years of admirals living in it until 1974, so many of the things that had been done for truman were discarded. it was our task to restore the house as it was. and although we had the records of what was bought, they did not necessarily tell us who it was from. so we found this fabric that is shown in the drapes and on the couch. it turned out to be a waverley print. none of us knew that. we happen to find a scrap of fabric on ebay. we found 200 yards of fabric. we ended up needing 187 yards to complete the task. the paintings on the wall i had been led to be

remember, that was something that tom dewey hadn't done in '44 under somewhat similar circumstances when that. >> you're right. the nuclear trust ban, which was very unpopular point of view to take in 1956, but he took it very courageously because he believed in it deeply, and i remember he said someone asked what the weapons would be in world war iv and he said they'd be sticks and stones, and he made his point. >> newton minow, between 1952 and 1956, was adlai stevenson angling to get the nomination again? >> i'd have to answer that with a yes and a no. i think when hoped he might someday be president, but he also knew if he ran against president eisenhower again, the odds were very much against him. i was one of the few people around him urged him not to run in 1956, but he felt an obligation to the democratic party. >> here's a little of adlai stevenson at the 1956 convention, also held in chicago. >> i come here on a solemn mission. i accept your nomination and your program. and i pledge to you every resource of my instinct that i possess to make your deed today a good one for our c

dewey beach delaware. affidavits say chief hanson was directly involved in the process of awarding the contract to train her officers but did in the directly suggest tom's firm is a possible bidder. april of 14e approved awarding it to his filler, hanson sent an e-mail to of the chief financial officer saying quote i just learned i know the bidder at abs consulting. also says hanson told investigators, she later alerted officials that she had quote, a close personal relationship with thomas, but as investigators allege in the affidavit, she did not disclose she had known thomas ten years and was in a personal financial relationship with him. now, investigators want to see all of hanson's financial records. in order to determine whether there was fraud involved. a subpoena was issued. but chief hanson went to court claiming four accounts are held jointly with her adult son and are not relevant to the investigation. a claim countered by investigators who want to know the extent of the relationship, personal and financial with kerry thompson. >> we learned today the judge in the case has denied the chief's petition and has investigators can access all of h

talking about tom dewey, 1948 campaign. our "contenders" and our 14-week series. and we want to thank you for watching tonight and calling in. and the staff of the roosevelt hotel here who have been very helpful to our crew tonight. a big thanks to everyone.

debbie, what's your question about tom dewey? >> caller: my question is about, why haven't the democrats put biden in office and send obama back to africa where he was born? >> we're going to move on. john, pennsylvania. go ahead. >> caller: in 1944 -- i'm a world war ii veteran, i'm 86 years old. i've still got a good brain, i still remember things. and i feel that in 1944 it was roosevelt's time. i think dewey was a very, very smart person, but i think the people were so ready for roosevelt and they just wanted to keep him in office because we were at war. i think if we were not at war dewey would have won hands down. what do you think? >> richard norton smith. >> that's exactly as i said earlier. that was the conundrum you couldn't know. but it's interesting that that comment all these years later reflects what dewey himself believed, the strategy was that, in a peacetime environment, people grateful as they were to fdr -- remember what the british did to churchill -- would have been willing to turn a page and embark upon a di