Word: trumans
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Load of Hay. Truman's investigation saved the nation billions of dollars during the huge hurry and grab of wartime procurement. By 1944, his personal stature had grown so impressive that some Democrats saw him as a way out for F.D.R., who was looking for a new running mate to replace the controversial Henry Wallace. James Byrnes was proposed and Truman even agreed to nominate him. But the final choice was an astonished Harry Truman...
...Truman's tenure as Vice President was brief. In less than three months, Eleanor Roosevelt was to tell him: "Harry, the President is dead." The new President spoke to reporters next day: "I don't know whether you fellows ever had a load of hay or a bull fall on you. But last night the moon, the stars and all the planets fell on me. If you fellows ever pray, pray...
...prepared because Roosevelt had not taken him into his inner councils, had not even let him in on the secret of the atom bomb. For a while, Truman floundered, and he never did acquire any sense of personal grandeur. But he did come to understand his office. On his desk, he placed a sign: THE BUCK STOPS HERE. So did pretension...
Neither status nor success made any significant change. Truman's idea of a holiday was to spend a week in the VIP quarters at the Key West naval base and do a little fishing. He still took his early-morning walks (at the military quicktime pace of 120 steps a minute), to the distress of Secret Service men and reporters trying to stay awake and keep up with him. When a Washington critic said some unpleasant things about the singing talent of his daughter Margaret ("my baby"), he dashed off a letter which said, in part: "I have just...
Manure. Always an earthy talker, Truman once offended a friend of his wife's by referring repeatedly to "the good manure" that must have been used to nurture the fine blossoms at a Washington horticulture show. "Bess, couldn't you get the President to say 'fertilizer'?" the woman complained. Replied Mrs. Truman: "Heavens, no. It took me 25 years to get him to say 'manure.' " When confronted by a press conference question he did not care to answer, Truman did not hesitate to say "no comment" or, more pointedly, "That's none...