DEMOCRATS: The Spoilsman

In Washington on the last day of October 1948, burly William Marshall Boyle Jr., one of Kansas City's smartest local politicians, pushed aside a pile of statistics and predicted flatly that Harry Truman would carry 29 states. He was wrong on only one state: Maryland went for Tom Dewey (by 8,293 votes).

Washington is thronging with deserving Democrats who are sure that they won the election for Harry Truman. Bill Boyle, more than any other man, knows which ones had nothing whatever to do with it. He himself had quite a bit. He is the man who plotted every inch...

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