In the 20 years since a Republican was elected Governor of New York,* Empire State Republicans have become connoisseurs of defeat. Close races, hot races, dull races—Republicans lost them all. As years passed, the moth-eaten oldsters who ran the party were succeeded by youngsters, but their goal of dignified defeat and their manner of well-bred defeatism remained the same.
About 1937, three men began to change all that: tough Thomas E. Dewey, tweedy Kenneth F. Simpson, bland Bruce Barton. In an amateurish but effective way, all were political hot stuff. And all had...
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