established a campaign structure that relied on the feedback of local political

operatives. The Ohioan had continually heard that he was the choice of most

Republicans and that his platform also appealed to a sizable number of Democrats,

especially in the South, and independent voters. Taft's correspondence files literally

overflowed with letters of support from across the country, with many urging the

Senator to aggressively oppose continued Democratic rule. Once he launched his

campaign, Taft believed that two entities had undermined his efforts: the Dewey

organization and the eastern press. After the 1948 presidential polls had proven so

wrong about Dewey's chances, Taft and his backers believed that Dewey and Gallup

were in league and saw the polls as purely a propaganda instrument.

 Taft's charges appeared outlandish on first glance, but in his mind Gallup was

dancing to the tune that Dewey called. As the campaign season wore on, the public

opinion appeared to be shifting away from Taft more and more. On 26 June, the

Christian Science-Monitor wrote that Taft had received word of another Gallup poll

favorable to Eisenhower just as he was hearing reports that Irving Ives had pledged to

bow out of his re-election campaign should Taft be nominated. According to the

reporter, Taft responded by slamming his fist onto his desk and shouting charges that

both stories were part of a Dewey strategy to discredit him. Taft defended his issue-

based campaign and claimed that "the method of campaigning is far more important

than the candidate. Dewey and Willkie lost because they waged the kind of campaign

I am afraid Eisenhower would wage. Polls don't mean a thing."48

 While Dewey and Gallup were friends, there is no evidence that the research

firm had slanted his findings to favor one candidate over the other. To Taft's critics,

this sort of outburst gave further proof that the Ohioan was unfit to lead. The Alsops


48 Christian Science-Monitor 26 June 1952.