Thomas E. Dewey - Public Perception

Public Perception

Dewey first came to nationwide attention as "gangbuster", becoming a household name in the U.S. even before he entered presidential politics. At the age of 37, he was perceived as a rising star in the Republican Party and frontrunner for the presidential nomination in 1940. During that campaign, however, with the war in Europe intensifying, he was widely considered too young and inexperienced for the presidency and lost the nomination to Wendell Willkie. His visibility propelled him to the governorship in 1942 and the 1944 Republican presidential nomination. Dewey was a forceful and inspiring speaker, traveling the whole country during his primary campaigns and attracting uncommonly huge crowds.

During the 1944 election campaign, Dewey suffered an unexpected blow when a remark attributed to socialite Alice Roosevelt Longworth (daughter of Theodore Roosevelt) mocked Dewey as "the little man on the wedding cake" (alluding to his neat mustache and dapper dress). It was ridicule he could never shake. Dewey alienated former Republican president Herbert Hoover, who confided to a friend that "Dewey has no inner reservoir of knowledge on which to draw for his thinking," elaborating that "A man couldn't wear a mustache like that without having it affect his mind."

All his presidential campaigns were hampered by Dewey's habit of making overly vague statements, defining his strategy as not being "prematurely specific" on controversial issues. Truman joked that Republican Party (GOP) actually stood for "grand old platitudes". Walter Lippman, in 1940, regarded him as basically an opportunist, who "changes his views from hour to hour... always more concerned with taking the popular position than he is in dealing with the real issues". Adding to that, he had a tendency towards pomposity and was considered stiff and inapproachable, with even his own aide Ruth McCormick Simms once describing him as "cold, cold as a February iceberg".