Joe Biden, Henry Wallace and the Decision of 1944
Joe Biden, Henry Wallace and the Decision of 1944
In 1944, FDR switched his VP from Wallace to Truman, knowing he was likely selecting his presidential successor. Could Biden end up making the same calculation in 2024?
At the Democratic Party Convention in 1944, Vice President Henry Wallace, former Agricultural Secretary and key supporter of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, was dumped from the ticket. This says as much about Roosevelt’s health as it did about Wallace’s strong progressivism and perceptions by the conservatives within the Democratic Party. Why would a successful ticket be dismantled? And why the choice of Democratic stalwart Truman in place of Wallace?
In a 2013 article written for the National Review, author Conrad Black, writing of Wallace’s selection as running mate in 1940, states, “FDR wanted the vice president to be someone who believed more emphatically in what he had been doing for eight years than did the incumbent vice president, former House speaker John Nance Garner of Texas.”
Yet by 1944, the selection of Wallace was seen to be a mistake. According to historian Roy Jenkins, as he wrote in Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “There was general agreement that Wallace would not do; FDR thought he would cut a million off the Democratic Vote.”
Historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. called Wallace "an incorrigibly naive politician." Journalist Peter Beinart writes that Wallace had a "naive faith in U.S.-Soviet cooperation.” Yet Wallace had served as Agricultural Secretary for seven years prior to his election as Vice President in 1940. At that time, his views, which included his support for farmers and a certain admiration for the Soviet Union, were known to Roosevelt.
So the question is, why was Wallace, as palatable as running mate in 1940, not the right Vice President in 1944? Despite the concerns over Wallace’s ideology, it is difficult to imagine a hale and hearty Roosevelt losing an election in the middle of the greatest war ever fought in history, regardless of who was running with him. Yet this was not the 1932 FDR. “The beginning of Roosevelt’s decline came in March 1944. With a bronchial infection and a temperature of 104 degrees, he had little choice but to undergo a major checkup,” adds Jenkins. Did Roosevelt know what was coming? Almost certainly.
But for a man who loved being president, his declining health could never be publicly, and barely privately, acknowledged. Certainly not mentioned, with World War II still in doubt and an election coming up. In a 2016 book review in The New York Times, Lynne Olson states, “If the American public had known how gravely ill he was, his chances of re-election would have been greatly jeopardized, if not destroyed.” And did they know? Historian David Jordan, in his work FDR, Dewey, and the Election of 1944, states, “Franklin Roosevelt’s health had long been a matter of public knowledge and speculation.” And this speculation led to “another factor that weighed upon the Democratic leaders as they thought about a running mate for Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944. That factor was Roosevelt’s health and the possibility that the convention might actually be choosing the next president when it named someone to the second spot on the ticket,” adds Jordan.
Harry S Truman was, in many regards, the anti-Wallace. For the party bosses of the Democratic Party, if they were indeed not picking a typical Vice President but rather a future president, they would pick anyone but Wallace. “He had a peculiar personality and his political views were anathema to large parts of the Democratic Party,” states Jordan. As for Truman, he was a great consensus pick because, in his time in Washington, much of it as a backbencher Senator, he had not made many enemies. He also had a reputation as a man of integrity. Even if the leaders of the Democratic Party, and Roosevelt himself, did not fully appreciate the actual time Roosevelt had left, it is hard to imagine that anyone thought it would be a full four years.
This opens up all kinds of insights into Vice Presidential choosing. Would H.W. Bush have chosen Dan Quayle if he had an expectation of not completing his term? Would John McCain have chosen Sarah Palin, or would Al Gore have chosen Joe Lieberman? There are recent examples of top-of-the-ticket candidates making choices on the rhetorical basis of having a ready successor. In 1992, Bill Clinton chose another southern moderate to round out the ticket, though Al Gore lacked some of Clinton’s personal baggage. And, in the cases of Michael Dukakis choosing Lloyd Bentsen and George W. Bush choosing William Cheney, these are examples of selecting experience greater than the person actually running for president. But none of these candidates, certainly not the hearty 43-year-old Clinton nor long-distance runner W. Bush, imagined an inability to finish their terms.
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In 2020, Joe Biden, if elected President, will not finish his first term. Biden’s history of gaffes and plagiarism is well known. But he was committing his malapropisms and stealing Neil Kinnock speeches before presiding over the Senate Judiciary Committee and running as Barack Obama’s Vice President. Here are a few of the gems.
In 1988, then aged 46, New York Times reporter Maureen Dowd reported that in September 1987, Biden “lifted Mr. Kinnock's closing speech with phrases, gestures and lyrical Welsh syntax intact for his own closing speech at a debate at the Iowa State Fair on Aug. 23 - without crediting Mr. Kinnock.” Biden even repeated the line that he was the first "in a thousand generations" to graduate from college, gesturing to his wife in the exact same way Kinnock did.
Also in 1987, Biden claimed that he graduated in the top half of his law school when he actually was 76th of 85. In 2006 Biden stated, “In Delaware, the largest growth of population is Indian Americans, moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking." Biden also said, describing Barack Obama, “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy." Try to imagine a Republican describing a minority candidate as “clean.” And yet these were examples of Biden’s 40-year career ranging from his initial political campaigns in the 1970s up to the Obama reelection campaign.
In 2012, when running for a second term as Vice President, Biden debated the Republican Vice Presidential candidate, Representative Paul Ryan. Here is how the Washington Post reporter Chris Cillizza described the debate, “The debate was SO dominated by Biden -- for good and for bad -- that Ryan was largely a bystander. If you liked aggressive Biden, that makes Ryan a loser. If you don't aggressive Biden, which makes Ryan a winner.” CNN described the debate as this, “We expected Ryan, not Biden, to bring a three-ring binder full of facts and figures to the debate. It's not that the data-driven Ryan didn't show up with an arm full of his statistics; it is just that Biden did so as well.” And a Republican strategist, quoted in the Walls Street Journal stated, “If you like Joe Biden already, then you absolutely loved him tonight. If you are undecided or indifferent, you're probably left wondering who this man is who is smirking, sighing, pointing, interrupting and badgering.”
Does anyone with sentient thought or even a smidge of objectivity think that 2020 Joe Biden is the same as the one described just eight years ago? Biden may have cribbed from British Prime Ministers or used cringe-worthy language, but there was a fighting spirit about all of it. This is different from an inability to string together two sentences, stumbling over easy words, or not knowing which state he happens to be giving a speech.
Not everyone ages the same, which explains how Bernie Sanders seems to be on top of his game though a year older than Biden. Or how Nancy Pelosi could command the House at an age even older than Sanders. What is unmistakable is not just that Biden is older, but that he is aged. One of the few to come out and call the obvious was Fox commentator Britt Hume, who stated, "I don't think there's any doubt about this. I have traces of this myself. I know what it feels like. Sometimes you're confused, sometimes you can't remember, 'What are you supposed to do the next morning?' -- and I'm not running for president and it's probably a good thing I'm not."
All of this puts Joe Biden’s Choice of Kamala Harris in perspective. The choice of Vice President is truly in the same context as in 1944. And it makes Biden’s choice of Harris that much more critical. One has to go back to Richard Nixon in 1973 to find the last president, who made the choice of who was going to be the next president. Now, the American people will select among three candidates, Biden, Trump – AND Harris.
AD Tippet is the founder and Publisher of the Conservative Historian. He has conducted extensive research in Political, Religious, Social, and Educational history across all eras and geographies. He has been writing and podcasting for over 12 years. In 2020, he published his first book, The Conservative Historian. He has degrees in history, education, and an MBA. @BelAves
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