European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 29, 1948, Darmstadt, Hesse Weekend v1 hot of All shades vie for big pr1ze-pkes1uent1al nomination will we have a dark horse president by Lawrence Newton across the Hoard of american history presidential dark horses have come Home. Winners Many times. However like on All Long shots the Odds run heavily against it. New York Hen the Republican party meet sin the heat and humidity of Philadelphia next month to select a presidential candidate the first few ballots will be spread from All present indications among the three leading contenders Harold e. Stassen of Minnesota Thomas e. Dewey of new York by Robert a. Taft of Ohio. The predict Lons of Public opinion surveys and the a results of state primaries show that none these favourites will enter the con ution with the necessary majority o resolve the deadlock the managers. Two of the three candidates will have to reach some sort of agreement where a one Man will throw his strength to he other thereby eliminating the third the managers can t agree and it books at the moment that they might not be Able to then the convention will Ery Likely nominate for the presidency of the second rank nomination ers one of the dark term dark horse is a pretty Tippery one. Generally it Means a goo to come Home Winner if the Odds the conditions Are favourable. Iii dental conventions it is. Always cult to draw the line at who is dark who in t. Obviously at Phila phia some horses will be Darker than and some of the degrees of Ladow will be barely discernible to naked Eye. As the Field Heads for Barrier Leverett Saltonstall of Mas a Leech users is several shades Darker than general Macarthur who in turn is i tracer than Earl Warren of Only the finest of photographic Light a a skiers could distinguish the delicate a Bidings that separate Warren from Jeseph w. Martin jr., of Massachusetts. When the convention is called to order by governor Dwight Green of Illinois the darkest or lightest depend ing on which end of the spectrum you Start at horse in sight will be Senato Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan. He ranks among the dark horses by the Courtesy extended to candidates who Don t actively Campaign for is one of the Distin 7guishing qualities of most dark horses. Vandenberg has even said in his own words that he in t running but such modest statements of intentions have been known to carry very Little weight with convention delegates once they reset their minds to nominating someone. Even though Vandenberg has no stumped the country in the manner of Stassen Dewey and Taft there has been a Small Earnest group of his sup porters working quietly to round up votes especially the All important second Choice votes should the anticipated three Way Jam occur. Republican leaders do not look with Disfavour on Vandenberg and the party regulars who Are sup posed to be supporting Taft would be Only too pleased to see the Michigan senator beat out the likes of Stassen. Although what makes Stassen an irregular is a Little difficult to explain if Vandenberg does win out then just one More pre convention dark horse will have romped in with the Nomina Tion. -.--. The Republican party while holding no monopoly on the process has produced some of the More interesting examples of a dark horse s being nominated. The party has also offered Evi Dence to. Prove that your True dark horse is not really a dark horse at All but someone that a few insiders known going to win before the delegates Convene. The classic instance of the dark horse that was not a dark horse is Hen the time for the Republican convention of 1920 rolled around the party Bosses surveyed Thefield and found it dominated by three men All of whom for the Bosses Pur poses were totally unsatisfactory. The favorite was a Tough outspoken Gen eral named Leonard Wood. Another was governor Frank Lowden of former wartime food administrator Herbert Hoover was making rather amateurish overtures for the Nomina Tion and the party chieftains snickered quietly up their starched cuffs. A fourth possibility was the stiff necked senator from California Hiram Johnson the implacable enemy of the the Bosses would have none of these four. They were looking for Aman of quite different stamp. Most of All one who would be exactly opposite in manner and temperament from the austere Woodrow Wilson. They wanted no idealist. And most of All they wanted someone manageable. Their Choice Fellon an undistinguished senator from Ohio Warren Gamaliel Harding. Hard ing filled the order. He was handsome probably the most handsome president in our history personally warm an Friendly he stood squarely for the status quo and was As Folksy As old s nomination was decided upon four months before the Conven Tion and his manager an Ohio politician named Harry m. Daugherty who be came attorney general in Harding a Cabinet predicted he would be put Over by a dozen men at two o clock in the morning in a smoke filled thus Daugherty coined himself something fan immortal political phrase. Sure enough when Wood and Lowden were deadlocked the word was Given and Harding was nominated the next of the by products of the Nomi nation of a dark horse is the virtual sinking into oblivion of the leading but Defeated contenders. There Aren t Man people around who can Tell you who Frank Lowden was and 1920 in t so very Long ago. Some dark horse Nomi nees Are forgotten to this Day some even who were elected to the presi Dency. Rare indeed is the Man who can give two facts on the presidential career of James k. Polk. Polk with pos sible exception of Millard Fillmore is the least remembered president Weever had. Fillmore is deserving of memory if Only for his i historic refusal of an honorary degree from Oxford on the grounds that he had no literary or scientific Polk when the democrats nominated him in 1844, was not As obscure As one might think even though he did come to the convention dark horse. At convention time the favorite was the sex president Martin. Van Burderi. Although Defeated in the Campaign of 1840 by William Henry Harrison Van Buren was still the head of his party and the bearer of the Mantle of Andrew Jackson. The other two favourites were named Lewis Cass who would get the democratic Nomi nation in 1848 and colonel Richard Johnson Van Buren s vice president on the first ballot Van Buren fell 36 Yotes Short of the necessary two third majority. The two thirds Rule stayed continued on Pope 18 5
