Democrats Continue Upward Movement

Daily Kos compares and contrasts Sam Wang of Princeton Election Consortium and Nate Silver of 538.

Democratic leaders are busy, busy, busy in these final days -- working hard to keep money flowing to campaigns and to get out the vote.

Read more here:
Democrats Continue Upward Movement In Final Days

Harry Truman speaks at the Mormon Tabernacle, Autumn 1948

In this speech, Harry Truman lauds the efforts of the pioneers of the west, especially the early Mormons.  Then he broadens his focus to the entire west to tell his listeners how serious is the battle for control of the resources of the west.  When today's right-wingers rail about government control of so much of the west, they miss the point.  The set-asides were the result of powerful Wall Street forces who sought to control the resources and siphon off the profits for their own selfish interests.

A very small portion of the speech is printed below.  For the entire speech please visit the URL below.  What a night that must have been when Harry Truman spoke!

 Selfish men have always tried to skim the cream from our natural resources to satisfy their own greed. And they have always sought to control the Government in order to accomplish this. Their instrument in this effort has always been the Republican Party.
The Republican administrations of our time have done their best to make the West [p.532] an economic colony of Wall Street. In the 1920's, under Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover, quick and greedy exploitation was the order of the day. Many parts of the West were withering--withering from the failure to develop its power and irrigation, withering actually from Republican sabotage.
Selfish men had control, and the great resources of the West were wasted with sinful disregard of the people.
Never before in history had so much been wasted by so few. 

Speech Text: The Night Harry Truman Spoke at the Mormon Tabernacle 

Harry Truman Reminds Voters of the Republican "Gluttons of Privilege"

In Dexter, Iowa, on the campaign trail in 1948 Truman had this to say:

You remember the big boom and the great crash of 1929.  You remember that in 1932 the position of the farmer had become so desperate that there was actual violence in many farming communities.  You remember that insurance companies and banks took over much of the land of small, independent farmers -- 223,000 farmers lost their farms....
I wonder how many times you have to be hit on the head before you find out who's hitting you?
The Democratic Party represents the people.  It is pledged to work for agriculture....The Democratic Party puts human rights and human welfare first....These Republican gluttons of privilege are cold men.  They are cunning men....They want a return of the Wall Street economic dictatorship.   

Getting Started

Greetings!

It's good to see ya'll today.  This is Harry Truman Redux.  Just think of me as Pres. Harry Truman come back to watch after your best interests.

In the next few days I will be sharing some of my words of encouragement and inspiration with you. Most were first said by me from the back platform of the Ferdinand Magellan train as it rolled across the country during the 1948 campaign.  We stopped at around 140 places on our first official campaign trip and I gave about 147 speeches and shook some 30,000 hands.  There were over a million people in Los Angeles.  My life in the White House had become practically a prison, and it was a joy and an honor to get out and meet all the people.

You may know that I always did love music and that I played the piano.  Some people said I played pretty well.  Anyway, my friend (I call most people that), The Musical Patriot, has decided to use my words to help out in this 2014 campaign.  I say, Go right ahead, and give them h***.  Actually, it is just going to be the truth and our opponents are going to think it's h***!

As you can see, I still care about the country, even up here in this eternal Missouri some call heaven. Bess is here and doing fine, and, now Margaret, too -- sweet thing.  Follow me here for the next few days.  Have a good time, but mostly get out and vote and ask your friends to vote, too.  And this time, unlike in 2010, vote for yourselves.  Vote for yourselves!


Very sincerely yours,

Harry Truman