Q 01/05

Which newspaper printed the mistaken headline Dewey Defeats Truman on some 150,000 early copies in 1948?

A) Los Angeles Times

B) Chicago Daily Tribune

C) Boston Daily Globe

D) Washington Evening Star

Answer · why

B) Chicago Daily Tribune

The Chicago Daily Tribune went to press before most results were in, trusting its Washington correspondent's forecast of a landslide. Later editions s...

Q 02/05

What name is given to Truman's 1948 campaign of short speeches from a train's rear platform in small towns?

A) Whistle-stop tour

B) Front-porch campaign

C) Barnstorming tour

D) Swing around the circle

Answer · why

A) Whistle-stop tour

Whistle-stop tour is the phrase, taken from minor stations where a train halted only when signaled. Truman gave hundreds of such speeches that fall.

Q 03/05

What mocking label did Truman pin on the Republican-led 80th Congress during his 1948 race against Dewey?

A) Know-Nothing

B) Rubber-Stamp

C) Lame-Duck

D) Do-Nothing

Answer · why

D) Do-Nothing

Do-Nothing was Truman's jab, and it drew angry replies from Republican leaders in Congress but no comment at all from Dewey. Truman also called it the...

Q 04/05

Which feature of Thomas Dewey's looks delighted cartoonists and dismayed his advisers when he ran against Truman?

A) His mustache

B) His bow ties

C) His spectacles

D) His bald head

Answer · why

A) His mustache

His mustache stayed for 20 years because his wife, Frances, liked it. A wisecrack that stuck to the dapper Dewey compared him to the little groom on a...

Q 05/05

Dewey's 1948 loss to Truman was his second as Republican nominee; which president had beaten him four years earlier?

A) Herbert Hoover

B) Theodore Roosevelt

C) Franklin Roosevelt

D) Woodrow Wilson

Answer · why

C) Franklin Roosevelt

Franklin Roosevelt beat Dewey in 1944, though Dewey ran him closer than any of his three earlier opponents had. Dewey began the 1948 primaries as the ...