OCR Text |
Show GRASSROOTS Truman and Tafi Will Be Opponents in Election embrace those things he considers as of value to the nation as a whole, and not only those of one or more minorities. It will, in no sense, be a "me-too" platform that has resulted in Republican defeat de-feat in the last three campaigns. The 1952 campaign will be a real political battle. It will not be lost because of a lay-down on either side, but it will not be won until the votes have been counted. By Wright A. Patterson AT THE TIME this is written it seems entirely safe to name the candidates for the presidency on both the Democratic and Republican Re-publican tickets in the political race of 1952. Truman has not definitely said that he will seek another term, but has so broadly intimated in-timated that he proposes to do so, that there can be no chance of a miss in naming him as the Democratlo nominee. His is the last chance any one will have of being named for the job for more than two terms. The new law providing for a two term limit specifically exempts the incumbent, in-cumbent, which in this case is Harry S. Truman. Whether he is elected or not, he can at least have the glory of being the nominee of his party for a third term. The President will start his campaign cam-paign with an advantage of some nine million votes, representing the army of government bureaucrats, their relatives rel-atives and friends. With such an advantage ad-vantage he believes he can win, and it does represent a big handicap for the Republicans to overcome. Many Republican leaders, who have in the past figured that Senator Sen-ator Taft was not a vote getter, did not have popular appeal, and did have organized labor against him, changed their opinions on both points following the last election in Ohio, when Taft carried the state in his fight for reelection by a majority of better than 440,000. It proved to the doubting Thomases Thomas-es of his party that the senator could attract votes, and that union labor leaders did not control the union labor vote. They want a candidate for 1952 who will not take success for granted, but will fight for the needed votes. The limited demand for Eisenhower has largely petered out because the general has not made any announcement of his political affiliations, or uttered ut-tered any desire for the nomination. nomin-ation. Had he done these things, by this time the result might still be very much in doubt. In. his campaign it is reasonably expected that Senator Taft will have the enthusiastic backing of Mac-Arthur. Mac-Arthur. As a participant in the campaign on the Republican side, MacArthur will do much to offset that nine million vote handicap Taft must overcome to win. Taft is not the type to be overconfident overcon-fident and count the votes before they are cast, as did Dewey, Regardless Regard-less of straw polls, or the opinions of political leaders, he will figure he can lose up to the counting of the votes next November. Taft will stand for the maintenance mainten-ance of our free enterprise system; sys-tem; he is opposed to all forms of socialism; he believes in helping those who are down, but he does not believe in making us a nation of indigents by the voting of indiscriminate in-discriminate doles to all who are willing to accept. His platform will undoubtedly |