Panned By The Press

By the time President Harry Truman arrived back in the nation’s capital from his first cross-country campiagn train tour in 1948, “the Washington newspapers had thrown cold water on his shakedown cruise. The Post and Star wrote that instead of demeaning the office by making a spectacle of himself on a political junket, the president should have stayed at home. Journalists who had been on the train and witnessed the surging crowds were not so sure. Barnet Nover of the Denver Post was cautiously optimistic. Referring to Harry Truman, he wrote, ‘He has begun to make an impression.’”

Source: David L. Roll, Ascent to Power: How Truman Emerged from Roosevelt’s Shadow and Remade the World (New York, Dutton, 2024)