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Truman's speeches drew many indignant editorials, but they also drew good crowds, who understood every word he said and seemed to accept it as truth. The speeches were better written and better delivered than those in his 1948 campaign. They had the power of oversimplified clarity, like Joe McCarthy's attacks on the Truman Administration. Truman reaches a lot of people that Stevenson does not, just as McCarthy reaches a lot of people that Eisenhower does not.
The campaign, which had started at a high level, would not stay there if Truman became "the key." Apparently, slugging Harry Truman was still determined to be the key.