LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Dwight Eisenhower: Southern Democrats
built 635 days ago
Eisenhower's strength as a political leader rested almost entirely upon his disinterestedness and his integrity. He had little taste for political maneuvers and was never a strong partisan. His party, which attained a majority in both houses of Congress in 1952, lost control in 1954, and for 6 of 8 years in office the President was compelled to rely upon both Democrats and Republicans. His personal qualities... made this easier than it might have been.
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In the 1960 election to choose his successor, Eisenhower endorsed his own Vice President, Republican Richard Nixon against Democrat John F. Kennedy. However, he only campaigned for Nixon in the campaign's final days and even did Nixon some harm when asked by reporters on TV to list one of Nixon's policy ideas he had adopted, replying "give me a week, I might think of one, I don't remember". Kennedy's campaign used the quote in one of their campaign commercials. Nixon lost narrowly to Kennedy.
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The Supreme Court confronted Eisenhower with another problem in May 1954 by declaring segregation in public schools unconstitutional. It set no time schedule for compliance. Most Northern African Americans customarily voted Democratic, and Eisenhower might have converted some by pressing energetically for implementation of the court order. But he temporized, partly because he was fearful of arresting the movement of Southern Democrats into the Republican party.
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As early as 1947 both the Democratic and Republican parties had sought to make Eisenhower their presidential candidate. In the tradition of American military leaders, Eisenhower had never taken part in partisan politics. He firmly refused offers from both parties. However, by 1952, he had come to feel in tune with the principles of the Republican Party. He resigned his NATO command that year to campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
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