 Roosevelt selected Howe as his campaign manager.The Cox—Roosevelt ticket lost overwhelmingly to Republicans Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, but both Roosevelt and Howe saw themselves as having successfully built Roosevelt a national reputation; not long after the election, Howe boasted to several friends that Roosevelt would soon occupy the White House, taking Howe with him.In mid-1921, Howe was vacationing with the Roosevelts at Campobello Island when Franklin began to run a high fever and reported paralysis in his legs.