Wendell Wilkie - Button

Striking portraiture campaign button for Wendell Wilkie (February 18, 1892 – October 8, 1944) corporate lawyer dark horse who became the Republican Party nominee for president in 1940. A member of the liberal wing of the GOP, he crusaded against New Deal domestic policies that he thought were inefficient and anti-business. An internationalist, he needed the votes of the large isolationist element, so waffled on the bitterly debated issue of America's role in World War II, losing support from both sides. His opponent Franklin D. Roosevelt won the 1940 election with 55% of the popular vote and 85% of the electoral vote. At the 2004 Republican National Convention Willkie was praised as a politician who embodied a non-partisan spirit of co-operation during wartime and praised his support of President Roosevelt's creation of a military draft, "Shortly before Willkie died, he told a friend, that if he could write his own epitaph and had to choose between 'here lies a president' or 'here lies one who contributed to saving freedom,' he would prefer the latter." Mitt Rmoney would probably say the reverse. Repro pub domain.