than any Republican since Herbert Hoover in the South, and still lost decisively." After the election, Dewey told publisher Henry Luce that "you can analyze figures from now to kingdom come, and all they will show is that we lost the farm vote which we had in 1944 and that lost us the election." A biographer noted that Dewey "rarely mentioned 1948 in the years thereafter. It was like a locked room in a musty mansion whose master never entered ... he seemed a bit bewildered at the unanimous front put up by his Albany advisers [during the campaign], regretted not having taken a final poll when his own senses detected slippage, and couldn't resist a potshot at "that bastard Truman" for having successfully exploited farmers' fears of a new depression." Pre-election planning by Dewey and his advisors for a potential presidential transition was much greater in 1948 than in any previous election cycle, and included selection by Dewey of potential cabinet officers. Though these efforts were ridiculed after Dewey was defeated, pre-election transition planning later became standard practice. 1952 Dewey did not run for president in 1952, but he played a key role in securing the Republican nomination for General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Taft was an announced candidate and, given his age, he freely admitted 1952 would be his last chance to win the presidency. Once Eisenhower became a candidate, Dewey used his powerful political machine to win Eisenhower the support of delegates in New York and elsewhere. The 1952 campaign culminated in a climactic moment in the fierce rivalry between Dewey and Taft for control of the Republican Party. At the Republican Convention, pro-Taft delegates and speakers verbally attacked Dewey as the real power behind Eisenhower, but Dewey had the satisfaction of seeing Eisenhower win the nomination and end Taft's presidential hopes for the last time. Dewey played a major role in helping California Senator Richard Nixon become Eisenhower's running mate. When Eisenhower won the presidency later that year, many of Dewey's closest aides and advisors became leading figures in the Eisenhower Administration. Among them were Herbert Brownell, who would become Eisenhower's Attorney General; James Hagerty, who would become White House Press Secretary; and John Foster Dulles, who would become Eisenhower's Secretary of State. Rivalry with Robert A. Taft Dewey's biographer Richard Norton Smith wrote, "For fifteen years ... these two combatants waged political warfare. Their dispute pitted