Word: sparkman
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...stepped to the microphone to sing the praises of a bulky, apple-cheeked man who stood slightly to the rear, grinning happily though his eyes were red from lack of sleep and his curly, greying hair was rumpled. Stevenson had scarcely gotten under way when careful, homespun John Jackson Sparkman, who had just been nominated for Vice President of the United States, stopped grinning, fished a cough drop out of his mouth and slipped it through a crack in the platform floor...
...witnesses" paraded through the room to give their opinions on who should be Veep. The field quickly narrowed down. Out went Kefauver (unacceptable in the South), Russell (unacceptable in the North), Barkley (too old), Oklahoma's Mike Monroney (not well known enough). The final choice: Senator John Sparkman of Alabama who, though no Dixiecrat, failed to support Truman in 1948. Later, one of the men present explained: "Stevenson made his decision with Harry Truman's help...
...hours later, at noon, the convention met once more, nominated Sparkman, labored wearily through one more demonstration. Said Stevenson: "You have inspected some of the finest political livestock in the U.S. [But] we've reserved until this morning the prize human animal for your approbation." Stevenson was keeping up his record of an aphorism a day. To New York Publisher Dorothy Schiff, at the height of the convention tiredness, he had said: "intellectual rigor mortis...
Publisher William R. Hearst Jr., writing in twelve Sunday papers across the country, agreed. "I am sure," wrote Bill Hearst, "that Governor Adlai Stevenson is a good man. Our Chicago newspaper, the Herald-American, says he has made a good governor. And Senator Sparkman seems to be a good Senator ... In reaching our decision to support the Republican ticket, we are more concerned with principles than personalities...
...days after his Florida victory, Russell's campaign got another boost-with another reverse twist that emphasized its hopelessness. Alabama's Senators Sparkman and Hill, who are Fair Dealers and not members of the Southern bloc, endorsed him. But in so doing they said: "He has always remained loyal [to the party] and may be counted on to do so in the future." In politics, this is like saying that the endorsee can be counted on not to steal a red-hot stove. Sparkman and Hill are not so much interested in promoting Russell's candidacy...