Tag: harry truman
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Feeling Badly About Adlai

Adlai Stevenson was one of the most admired losing candidates of all time. Here’s my hot take: He was a lousy candidate, and he encouraged the Democrats’ worst tendencies.
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Frank Church and Estes Kefauver: Lone Wolves, Honest Men

Church and Kefauver were both ambitious Senators who led high-profile investigations that caught public attention. They were both Senate outsiders with independent streaks. Were their differences a matter of personality… or the times?
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Estes Kefauver: Not an Organization Man

Kefauver was a principled politician, which cause stumbling blocks for his ambitions. In particular, his refusal to build a political organization made his campaigns harder than they had to be… and may have been hazardous to his health.
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Kefauver and LBJ: Two Paths to Power

Estes Kefauver and Lyndon Johnson had a number of things in common: two liberal-leaning, ambitious Southern Democrats who joined the Senate in the same year. But their approach to politics – and the pursuit of power – couldn’t have been more different.
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The Speech Kefauver Never Gave

Kefauver’s advisors wrote an acceptance speech in case he won the Presidential nomination in ’52. It’s not as pretty as the one Adlai Stevenson gave… but it might have been more effective.
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Family Feud: Kefauver vs. McKellar

Estes Kefauver made a lot of enemies in the Senate. Perhaps his fiercest foe was the senior Senator from his own state.
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Kefauver and TVA, Part 2: Ike and Dixon-Yates

Estes Kefauver successfully rescued the TVA from Kenneth McKellar’s whims. But could he save it from Ike and the threat of privatization?
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“The Great Land of the Free”: Kefauver and Civil Liberties

Estes Kefauver always took a strong stance on civil rights. Time and again, he stood up for suspected Communists and other unpopular groups. In the era of McCarthyism and the Red Scare, that was a lonely place to be.

