Editing Thomas E. Dewey (section)

=== Opportunism and vagueness ===
Dewey's presidential campaigns were hampered by his habit of not being "prematurely specific"<ref name="Peters, p. 18" /> on controversial issues. President Truman poked fun at Dewey's vague campaign by joking that [[Republican Party (United States)|G.O.P.]] actually stood for "grand old platitudes."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.usnews.com/articles/news/politics/2008/01/17/when-harry-gave-em-hell.html?PageNr=1 |title=Dewey Defeats Truman? No Way. Truman "Gave 'em Hell" on His Whistle Stop Tour in 1948 |newspaper=[[US News]]|date=January 17, 2008}}</ref>

Dewey's frequent refusal to discuss specific issues and proposals in his campaigns was based partly on his belief in public opinion polls; one biographer claimed that he "had an almost religious belief in the revolutionary science of public-opinion sampling."<ref name="Smith, p. 30">(Smith, p. 30)</ref> He was the first presidential candidate to employ his own team of pollsters, and when a worried businessman told Dewey in the 1948 presidential campaign that he was losing ground to Truman and urged him to "talk specifics in his closing speeches", Dewey and his aide Paul Lockwood displayed polling data that showed Dewey still well ahead of Truman, and Dewey told the businessman "when you're leading, don't talk."<ref name="Smith, p. 30" />

[[Walter Lippman]] regarded Dewey as an opportunist, who "changes his views from hour to hour… always more concerned with taking the popular position than he is in dealing with the real issues."<ref>Peters, p. 77</ref>

The journalist [[John Gunther]] wrote that "There are plenty of vain and ambitious and uncharming politicians. This would not be enough to cause Dewey's lack of popularity. What counts more is that so many people think of him as opportunistic. Dewey seldom goes out on a limb by taking a personal position which may be unpopular... every step is carefully calculated and prepared."<ref name="Gunther, p. 533" />