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If you have ever read David McCullogh's Pulitzer Prize winning biography on Harry Truman, you were probably amazed at this man, a failure in business, who turned it all around to become one of our most beloved presidents. Had the immensely popular Franklin D. Roosevelt not died less than 90 days into his unprecedented fourth term, Truman would quite possibly had been another footnote in American history, whose name would have been reserved for the charts in the back of American History and Government books.

Born and raised in Missouri, the quintessential middle America, Harry entered politics as a judge, not in the judicial sense, but as more what we might describe as a member of the Board of Supervisors. As one assigned to recommend changes in the road systems of the county, he personally drove every road in the county.

Harry became a senator largely through the efforts of Tom Pendergast, the head of the Democratic machine in Harry's county. He made a point of telling his benefactor that he was his own man and couldn't be handled. When Pendergast was jailed for his corrupt political practices, Harry was the only one that went to see him in jail.

Harry gained national notoriety when, as chairman of the Senate committee investigating waste in the US military. He found that contractors were using the same plans for all of the buildings that they were constructing for the military, but charging a different fee each time. He also found evidence of pipe weldings being unsafe, but being signed off by government inspectors.

In the Senate, he was a strong supporter of FDR and the New Deal. When it came time for FDR to run for that 4th term, he chose Senator Truman as his running mate, largely on the advice of his campaign operatives who told him that Harry was a straight shooter. Truman and FDR did not know one another, though they had met a couple of times.

When Roosevelt was re-elected, Truman became his vice-president, with no official duties, other than what the Constitution gave that office. In his less than 90 days in that position he had lunch with Roosevelt twice.

Then came was April 12th, 1945. While eating lunch at his retreat in Warms Springs, Georgia, FDR slumped into his soup, saying, "I have a terrible headache." He never regained conciouness and died a few hours later. Truman was about to become President of the United States. He was summoned to the White House early the next morning and sworn into office, with his hand laying on a family Bible.

Being president

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