CHAPTER 4
 OPPORTUNITY WASTED: THOMAS DEWEY AND THE REPUBLICAN
 FAILURE OF 1948

 In the 80th Congress, Republicans accomplished some of their economic goals

but failed to pass any substantive social legislation. While the ideological division of

the party was loose and imprecise, the friction between the Republican factions had

created a mixed record with no clear direction for the party. The dispute over the

nature of the American polity, whether they supported or rejected the philosophy of

the New Deal, remained the central dividing point between the party elites. As 1947

eased into 1948, the spotlight focused on the upcoming presidential election. In 1947,

Truman's popularity had reached an all-time low and many believed that the

Republicans were certain to win the White House and expand their majority in

Congress. Once again, however, intra-party disputes proved fatal and the Republicans

spent nearly as much time attacking each other as they did the Democrats. Ultimately,

the weak campaign of the Dewey organization robbed the Republicans of their best

presidential opportunity since the Great Depression. This chapter looks at the 1948

election in the context of party factionalism and argues that Dewey purposely avoided

any links to conservatism in order to win the votes of members of the New Deal

coalition. In the process, it asks why the Albany group jeopardized their position at

the top of the GOP by purposely alienating the Taftites.

 While Taft and his colleagues fought to define the Republican program on

Capitol Hill, Dewey implemented most of his legislative goals in New York and

staked his claim as the 1948 Republican standard-bearer. Dewey found a middle

ground in the state legislature between a group of powerful and vocal arch-