1956 Eisenhower VS. Stevenson

"Cartoon Guy"


Museum of the Moving Image
The Living Room Candidate
"Cartoon Guy," Eisenhower, 1956

MALE NARRATOR #1 [and TEXT]: Lower Taxes? Higher Taxes? Record Employment? Unemployment? Peace? War? Highest wages? Lower pay? States rights? Centralization of government?

CARTOON CHARACTER: Whoa! Stop! I've tried. I've listened to everybody on TV and radio; I've read the papers and magazines. I've tried, but I'm still confused! Who's right? What's right? What should I believe? What are the facts? How can I tell?

NARRATOR #2: Well, my friend, if it's any consolation, you're not alone. Many voters and in the same boat right this minute. Words have been flying at you hot and heavy. You've heard the pros and cons, and the cons and pros of both sides. You've listened to people you believe in, and people you've never heard of. And it's not surprising that you're confused.

But beyond all the words, beyond all the claims and promises, there's actually just one big thing on which most people base their final decision: the man.

Take this man: Dwight David Eisenhower. Ike. Soldier, Statesman, President, American. Dwight David Eisenhower is a man looked up to by everyone. He's captured the admiration, the trust, the devotion of Americans of all walks of life. He's won the acclaim of people of other nations and made us proud to be Americans. And he believes in the basic traditions of American life: home and family and faith in God, faith in man, faith in equal justice and opportunity for all. Faith in the future.

How do Americans think of Dwight D. Eisenhower? Listen.

FARMER #1: President Eisenhower has brought integrity and honesty back to the White House.

OFFICE WORKER: I'm for Eisenhower because I believe he's the only man in the world today that can talk to the leaders of all the countries in their language, on a plane that they'll understand.

FARMER #2: I'm a dairy farmer near Des Moines, Iowa. I'm going to vote for President Eisenhower because I hope to be farming for a number of years myself, and the President's program for agriculture stands for the future, and not just for day-to-day handouts.

MAN #1: I want to see President Eisenhower re-elected; he's brought honesty and integrity to the White House, and peace and prosperity to our country. That's good enough for me.

MAN #2: I think he feels that the individual American is self-reliant and wants to stand on his own feet: work out his own destiny with his hands and his mind, as he sees fit, with as little interference from government as he can have.

SECRETARY: Eisenhower strikes me as a fundamentally peaceful man, and I think that he knows enough about war that he would do practically anything honorable to keep us out of it.

PRIEST: I like the president because of his personal integrity. I think that he's the nearest thing to a statesman we've had in the White House for many years. He does have integrity; he has brought confidence to this nation and the world.

MAN #3: He practices so many things that he believes from his heart. With that kind of leadership, with the feeling and the aura--and the attitude that "I'm doing the best I can!" every time you just look at him--I just can't see anything, anything wrong with the man. Maybe I'm a little prejudiced.

NARRATOR #2: Those were the voices of the people speaking about the man they're going to vote for. Who will you vote for? What's your decision? What do you say?




"Cartoon Guy," Citizens for Eisenhower, 1956

Video courtesy of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library.

www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1956/cartoon-guy (accessed June 16, 2019).


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1956 Eisenhower Stevenson Results


Dwight D. Eisenhower for president
Richard Nixon for vice president

"Peace, Prosperity, and Progress"




Adlai Stevenson for president
Estes Kefauver for vice president





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