Prior to the election of 1944, leaders of the Democratic Party knew that FDR was near death. He had high blood pressure, heart artery blockage and congestive heart failure, on top of polio confining him to a wheelchair.
Henry Wallace, the Vice President, had been a Republican up until 1936. He was not trusted by White Southerners. He had these crazy ideas like blacks had a right to vote and the country needed to end racial segregation. Despite Harry Truman having only 2% support at the convention, Wallace was pushed aside in favor of Harry Truman.
Less than three months after taking office, Franklin Roosevelt was dead and Harry Truman had to decide how to end the war with Japan. The health of a candidate does matter.
It’s worth remembering nobody saw this on TV. People heard the speech on the radio or saw it as an edited newsreel at the movie theater. The reason the ceremony was moved to the White House had everything to do with his health. He had leg braces which allowed him to move short distances by swinging his torso to inch his feet forward. The newsreels and newspapers felt an obligation to conceal the truth about FDR’s health from the public.
I was there : )
parrott
These be a ??? moment or OMFG coincidence… The guy who wrote the blurb about the radio station whose image is at the top, said he went on to do the “You were there” programs that were on CBS and distributed to Armed Forces Radio (probably other places)… We worked st WTOP-AM after Charlotte ran him out of town… I can’t actually confirm that though.