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president now, and also by implication, he would have been a much better one. Cronkite barely even mentioned our October offensive. I had written what many people felt was the single best speech of the entire campaign:
    “They’ve been calling me ‘the egghead.’ They’ve been saying that I’m too intelligent to be president. Can you imagine that? Too intelligent? Well, if stupidity is the qualifier, then by that standard, Eisenhower’s vice-presidential nominee is the most qualified man for the office! And Eisenhower is the second-most qualified man, because he chose him! What the Republicans are offering you is a witch hunt at home and a land war in Asia. And frankly, I don’t think it takes too much intelligence to recognize that both of those options would be a big mistake for the United States of America.
    “But enough of the jokes. The Republicans have given us the best jokes of the campaign; I’m not going to try to top them. I’m going to talk seriously about the future of this country. An election isn’t a popularity contest. It isn’t about who you like the most. What’s at stake is too important to be decided so casually. An election has to be about two things: first, who’s most qualified to run the country? And second, where is he going to take America?
    “Let me tell you what the fifties are going to be about if a Democrat is elected president: they’re going to be about peace and prosperity. We’re going to create jobs, we’re going to build houses, we’re going to build shiny new cars and great interstate highways to drive them on. We’re going to build radios and television sets so that Americans can be informed and entertained. We’re going to build hospitals to take care of our sick and schools to educate our children. And most of all, we’re going to build a strong economy, an economy based on freedom and prosperity for all. We’re going to demonstrate to the entire world how democracy really works.
    “This is a nation of courageous men and women who have demonstrated over and over again that Americans are not afraid of hard work. We have worked our way out of a terrible depression, we have fought and won the most terrible war in the world’s history and we stand second to no one in our commitment to the rebuilding of war-torn Europe and Asia. Our children are going to know a world of shining cities, a
world that is clean and safe and bright. Our children are going to know a world that is free from war and sickness and hunger. Our children—”
    It was the “Our Children” speech, and that became the theme of the campaign for the last three weeks. It crystallized the entire election, and Eisenhower slid disastrously in the polls. We put up posters with pictures of Joe McCarthy, and the caption read, “What is this man going to do to your children?” With Eisenhower, we were a little more respectful. We went back to the earlier theme, “General Eisenhower wants to send your son to Korea.” It was enough.
    We had dictated the theme of the campaign and we had defined the choices. The Republican campaign never found itself, and by the time the first Tuesday of November rolled around, 51% of the American people voted for the Democratic candidate, 49% voted for the Republican. Not a landslide, but not an embarrassment either. The people chose fairly.
    During the commercial I went to pee. I passed one of the Negro custodians in the hall, and he nodded to me sadly. “You watchin’ the broadcast? Mr. Cronkite sure ain’t being nice to the boss.”
    I shook my head. “I don’t trust Walter Cronkite. I wouldn’t buy a used car from him.”
    “Wouldn’t buy a used car from him!” The old Negro cackled at the joke. “Hee hee hee. That’s a good one, all right.”
    I continued on down the hall. With a little luck, by morning that remark would be all over Washington. It wouldn’t help the boss any, but it sure would make me feel better.
    When I got back to my office, there was