• Exhibit Introduction

• The Prize:
  The Power of the Presidency

• The Candidates:
  Party Conventions

• The Chase:
  Political Campaigning

• The Image:
  Marketing the Candidates

• The Choice:
  Election Day

• The Coronation:
  Inaugurating the President

• Related resources:
  
  • Election results 1900-1944
  • Election results 1948-2000
  • 1948 Election
  • Teacher Lesson Plans

• Back to the
  Truman Library Home Page

THE CANDIDATES:
Party Conventions

Once the domain of "smoke-filled rooms," party bosses and "kingmakers" - where real battles took place over platforms and candidates - political party conventions have largely evolved into celebrations designed to showcase the party's nominee before a national television audience.

In 1912 Democrats took 46 ballots to nominate Woodrow Wilson. It took two weeks and a staggering 103 ballots for the Democrats to nominate John W. Davis in 1924.

Republican conventions were often just as contentious. Warren G. Harding was selected by party leaders in the original "smoke-filled room" in a Chicago hotel when the two leading candidates were deadlocked at the 1920 convention.

Over the last 30 years, though, state-by-state primary elections have usually determined the party's candidate in advance of the convention, while the party's desire to present a unified front before a national television audience has reduced the open battles over platform planks and other issues. The result is that the once-raucous party conventions have been replaced by long grueling primary campaigns, waged state-by-state across the entire nation.