In the spring of 1948, the electoral future of Democrat Harry S. Truman looked bleak. He had been president of the United States since the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt in April 1945, for whom he served as vice president. Truman was a candidate on the November 1948 ballot, a campaign that got off to a bad start: His popularity had sunk to abyssal depths with the political "hit parade" and not a single opinion poll gave him victory over the Republican candidate, Thomas Dewey. The party of the donkey – the Democratic party – was feeling depressed.
Running out of options, the Democratic convention, meeting in Philadelphia in August, reluctantly gave Truman its endorsement. And then, miracle! With television cameras filming such a political event for the first time, the Democrat delivered an acceptance speech that changed the face of the campaign. Brilliant and engaging, Truman was heading into battle with gusto. He sketched out a generous domestic and foreign ambition for an America learning to assume its superpower status in the nascent Cold War.
Professor Michael Beschloss, an eminent historian of the American presidency, said in a recent interview with MSNBC that it was the trigger, the beginning of a rise in the esteem of the Democratic electorate. And on the day of the vote, November 2, 1948, to the surprise of professional political scientists, the damned pollster won. Truman was always underestimated, Beschloss explained, adding: So is Joe Biden.
Punchy speech
In the same interview, Beschloss drew a direct comparison. Biden's powerful State of the Union address to Congress on Thursday, March 7, could be for him what Truman's speech to the Philadelphia convention proved to be in 1948 – the beginning of his renaissance. With Biden in the White House, democracy will not be degraded in the US (one of Trump's objectives); America will not abandon Ukraine (as the Republican candidate promises); and the country's reindustrialization will continue, as will the fight against global warming.
Aged 81, there's no escaping the issue of his health: fragile, searching for words, having memory lapses and on the verge of falling as soon as he had three steps to climb in severe weather. But, on Thursday, Biden displayed a perfect mastery of the issues, an oratorical punch to spare. Everything, in both body language and speech, was designed to show the contrast between this candidacy and that of the self-promoter in the red cap. The latter is the candidate of "hate, anger, revenge, retribution," all values in which, in the words of President Biden, America will not be able to recognize itself on Election Day (November 5).
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