Roosevelt lied about his health during the 1944 election — with stark consequences

Lying about health during an election year is a presidential tradition — but not one that benefits voters

Perspective by David Welky
Washington Post
October 13, 2020

[snip]

How much information about a presidential candidate’s health does the public have a right to know?

A secretive president is mounting a lackluster reelection bid while self-isolating within a small circle of family members and advisers. A global crisis and a life-threatening medical condition haunt his campaign. His doctors mislead the public, his political party keeps silent, and Americans hear rumors rather than accurate medical information.

President Donald Trump in 2020? [NW-or B!DEN in 2024?] No, President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944.

That wartime campaign almost 80 years ago pitted New York Gov. Thomas Dewey against three-term incumbent Roosevelt. The latter concealed health issues for the sake of electoral victory, and it worked.

Roosevelt defeated his Republican challenger 432 to 99, an electoral college landslide that obscured how close the election really was. Relative handfuls of votes decided such key states as Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

David Welky is a professor of history at the University of Central Arkansas and author of "A Wretched and Precarious Situation: In Search of the Last Arctic Frontier." He is currently writing a book about FDR's family during World War II.