Word: deweyitis
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...that different from Nixon the scrapper a mere four years later? Barber's categories are considerably too neat, but his basic point deserves attention: an election depends as much on the mood of the time as it does on the qualities of the successful candidate. Tom Dewey, Barber argues, came on too strong in 1944, when the public yearned for unity, but was too weak in 1948, when the mood was combative. Wrong both times, he lost both times...
These exemplars have not caused the author to mute his own polemic. He was, after all, a student and friend of Philosopher John Dewey, and the disciple adheres to the master's dictum: human freedoms can be extended only by the arts of intelligence. In Philosophy and Public Policy, that intelligence oscillates between civility and perversity. "The Hero in History" summarizes his brilliant division of the "event-making" men who redirect history (Lenin, Peter the Great) and "eventful" men (Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman) who are overtaken by circumstance. Yet his call for a corrective to the country...
...pious but inexact theories, T.S. Eliot's elitist culture of the future, Alger Hiss's claim of innocence - these are the stuff of enduring debate, and even when his case is exaggerated, Hook never fails to stimulate or enlighten. He is less successful when he praises. John Dewey's writings are described in dust-jacket prose: "chock-full of fruitful insights" and at times he can sound like Kahlil Gibran: "Democracy is like love in this: It cannot be brought to life in others by command." It is fortunate for author and reader that benignity...
...Basic Speech" of candidates that jaded reporters must constantly listen to. The classic advice on the subject is Nixon's to his own speechwriter, William Safire: "Please, Bill, don't try to please the press by saying something new all the time. Keep saying what works. Tom Dewey told me you have to tell people something at least four times before they remember it. We all have 'the' speech. Lincoln made the House Divided speech at least 100 times before Cooper Union...
...Thomas E. Dewey: "How can the Republican Party nominate a man who looks like the bridegroom on a wedding cake...