Harold Stassen For President ?

In 1946 perennial presidential candidate Harold Stassen was not yet a joke. The former governor of Minnesota had returned from war duty and was actively campaigning two years out, hoping to rally "progressive" Republicans to his side with the help of the Young Republicans. The News reported that prior to Stassen's scheduled luncheon appearance at the Bexar County Republican Executive Committee, San Antonio oilman Morris McLean, a member of the Republican Party national finance committee, proclaimed that Stassen was "the kind of progressive we do not want in our party."

Earlier that week Stassen joined President Truman, House Speaker Sam Rayburn, General Dwight Eisenhower and Trygve Lie of UN at the annual Grid Iron Roast in DC. A Sunday Times Magazine item that same day reported that Stassen was working with the Young Republicans to strengthen the liberal wing of the party.