'52... they still had newsreels in the movie houses, how did they feel about that?

Somehow I find it reassuring that, even in 1952, a catchy jingle and the size of his advertising budget mattered more than a politician's stance on political issues.

@ SYNCROTIC, you know Kennedy beat Nixon because Nixon looked like a sweaty weasel on TV.

Who knew what would happen when he finally got to office!

Seems that back in the 50's they caricatured their own candidate without caricaturing their opponent.

Maybe the 50's were some mythical better time.

Must...vote...for...Ike...

Here's a fun experiment: After watching the video that made Eisenhower worry for his dignity, jump to Obama Girl and try to watch that without giggling a little over how utterly it would have imploded in front of a 1952 audience. Oh my.

Wow ~ I totally remember watching this cartoon,
over & over & over as a sort of video-synching exercise before a movie,
at the Elbow Room's rooftop cinema in Second Life.

Elex Dusk, Judah Jimador, Euterpe Roo, Seldon Metropolitan, Maeve Morgan, that whole crowd ... Good times.

^_^

Eisenhower was skeptical about using television and his opponent, Stevenson, wouldn’t appear on television because he thought it demeaning to a man ascending to the presidency. Eisenhower won.

Affirming the consequent.

Well, no wonder Eisenhower won. The voters couldn't tell if Stevenson had any large African animals beating drums with their tails and trumpeting his name, could they?

who were the donkeys supposed to be? i think harry might have been Truman.

I think it's odd that when they show the Ike Caravan going to Washington, it goes to the Capitol building. Maybe Disney thought Ike was running for Congress, not President.

Schwal: I think the 3 donkeys are Harry Truman, Dean Acheson, and John Sparkman (Stevenson's running mate).

I think it's odd that his name is 'Dwight', yet his nickname is essentially 'Isaac', and Google seemingly doesn't have one satisfying, well-documented explanation.

A quick check of biographies doesn't turn up much either... including, ironically, Jean Darby's 'A Man Called Ike.

You'd think this would have confused and enraged voters. I for one think he just made up that phony nickname so he could have a catchy campaign slogan.

Affirming the consequent.

There's no conditional to reverse. The article says, in brief:

Eisenhower used television.
Stevenson did not use television.
Eisenhower won.

You're inferring (P /\ Q) -> R. It doesn't actually say that.

Oh, and 13, he was called Ike even when he was heading up the WWII Allied Forces, so whatever the etymology, it wasn't just a campaign slogan.

"...he thought it demeaning to a man ascending to the presidency."

Now it's just demeaning to the viewers.

The conspiracy runs deep my friend.

I think it's interesting that the font used of IKE at the very end seems to be the exact same font currently used of IKEA.

Ike was skeptical at first. His golfing buddies convinced him otherwise. See Craig Allen's Eisenhower and the Mass Media for a much fuller discussion. It's not like Stevenson didn't use television at all (cf. LivingRoomCandidate.org) but he undervalued it. One of his key '56 campaign advisers commented as much to his brother and remarked that if his brother ever did run for office, that he should not repeat Adlai's mistakes and that he should use television as much as possible. The adviser brother's name was Bobby. The other brother's name was Jack.

"he thought it demeaning to a man ascending to the presidency. "

Wow. Politics has always been a nasty business, so who did he think he was fooling with that one? Maybe it was the just the appearance of being demeaning he was opposed to, but then why do candidates appear at country fairs, pancake breakfasts, and baseball games (where everyone is drinking beer and yelling insults at the other team.)

My guess for the identity of the three cartoon donkeys are (left to right):

John Sparkman (Stevenson's running mate)
Dean Acheson
Estes Kefauver

"Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry"

I think that "Ike" comes not from his first name, but from his last name. Just as Isaac --> Ike, I think nobody wanted to pronounce "Eisenhower," so it went Eisenhower --> Ike, too. I know a guy who goes by "Ikey" whose real name is "Isaiah." So it seems pretty common to turn names that start with the "eis..." sound into something like "Ike."

When my parents told me they were voting for Stevenson because "he was a statesman," even at that age, it sounded fairly defeatist. When my Dad praised DDE as his former commander-in-chief, and belonged to a war veterans organization, I knew he "really" wanted to just like IKE.

BTW: "Ike" was happy, short and snappy, and Eisenhower sounded too much like the enemy that had just been defeated.

I like how this cartoon uses both an elephant and donkeys, making it hard to tell his political party. (Though I'm guessing from more donkeys and a previous comment that he was dem.). Still probibly now a days no politician would be this vague about which party they are from.

Did anyone else notice how the typeface that IKE is in the last little bit is quite similar to the IKEA logo? Suddenly I felt an urge to buy furniture...

"Stevenson, wouldn’t appear on television because he thought it demeaning to a man ascending to the presidency"

...And the irony is that, just a decade later, Adlai would have his finest hour on live TV, handing Zorin his head *and* balls on a silver platter at the UN during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Go figure.

Everybody DID like Ike. He could have run for either party and won, and either party would have been happy to share him. He was the last true ''People's President.'' It was widely accepted that he would win. It was almost a vindication of the old argument that the United States didn't need political parties.

I wore my ''I GO POGO'' button proudly and voted for the possum anyway.

Ike was the first to coin the term "Military Industrial (Congressional) Complex." in his last speech. He struck the "Congressional" at the last minute. He was seriously worried about the tail wagging the dog someday. His prediction would come to pass almost as soon as he left office. See the illuminating doc: Why We Fight for a thorough exploration of these forces at work and how they have controlled the country more or less since Ike left office. He wasn't a saint, however. Let's not forget that Ike's administration (along with the british government) led us into the beginning of our embranglement with the middle east as well.

Being drawn as if you have a three-foot-high forehead -- yeah, it's a bit demeaning.

macrumpton @ approx #26:
"Did anyone else notice how the typeface ... is quite similar to the IKEA logo?"

Yes, they did. See approx #18. Although, they're not really distinctive-looking fonts to my eyes; they're just sans-serif all-caps. So what? (Still doesn't prove the White House Swedish furniture scandal that you conspiracy theorists are always yammering about.)

Foolster41 @ approx #25:
You've reached some surprising conclusions. The animal carrying Ike's name and leading the parade is an elephant, symbol of the GOP. The four donkeys in the ad are three "we don't want" (John or Dean or Harry) plus one more shadowy, misguided one in the background ("let Ad-lai go the other way"). Ike's pretty clearly a Republican.

And anyway, it's no longer 1952, so you don't have to guess until you can get to your Funk and Wagnall's. You can look it up now!

Beyond which, (although I'm not currently residing in the States) I think current candidates are probably more vague about their parties, aren't they? Usually?

If you like this, you should check out the American Museum of the Moving Image's Living Room Candidate exhibition. It's got a ton of stuff like this.

31: I see. I think i misunderstood a comment before. I thought I saw in the commercial Ike riding a donkey with the elephant. I was meaning to look it up and totally forgot. (Ike was quite a while before I was born.)

I'm Dwight D. Eisenhower, and I approve this message.