re: #39 HappyWarrior

I’m glad they’re considering cell phones because I think that’s something worth considering. They did a poll in 1936 with only voters that had phones and they predicted Landon would beat FDR. That of course turned out to be way wrong. As more Americans get cell phones and use them more than their landlines, it’s time to seriously weigh people being polled via cellular phone.

Alf Landon was the kind of Republican they just don’t have anymore.

After war broke out in Europe in 1939 Landon fought against isolationists such as America First who supported the Neutrality Act; he feared it would mislead Nazi Germany into thinking the United States was unwilling to fight. In 1941, however, he joined isolationists in arguing against lend-lease, although he did urge that Britain be given $5 billion outright instead. After the war, he backed the Marshall Plan, while opposing high domestic spending. After the communist revolution in China, he was one of the first to advocate recognition of Mao Zedong’s communist government, and its admission to the United Nations, when this was still a very unpopular position among the leadership and followers of both major parties.
In 1961, he urged the U.S. to join the European Common Market. In November 1962, when he was asked to describe his political philosophy, Landon said: “I would say practical progressive, which means that the Republican party or any political party has got to recognize the problems of a growing and complex industrial civilization. And I don’t think the Republican party is really wide awake to that.” Later in the 1960s, Landon backed President Lyndon Johnson on Medicare and other Great Society programs.

He died on October 12,1987, at 100 years and 33 days of age.