I grew up in a very Republican family.

And the night of the 48 election, I was 15, I was in high school, and I was very interested

in politics.

And I wanted to stay up to hear who won, but the final count didn't come into something

like two in the morning.

And I fell asleep.

And the next morning, my father was in shaving, and I ran in.

I said, Dad, Dad, who won?

And he said, Truman, deep, sorrowful voice, like it was the end of the world.

And about 25, 30 years later, I was back home in Pittsburgh where I grew up.

And my father and I were having a nice chat after dinner.

And he was going on about how the world was going to hell and the country was going

to hell.

And then he paused and he said, too bad old Harry is still in the way.

We see things differently as time goes on.

And that's the nature of reality.

Truman himself said, you have to wait for the dust to settle.

And he was right, you do.

If you were ranking Truman in the last month or year of his presence, he'd rank him pretty

low.

But it's the dust has settled over the last 50 years and more.

We see now that Harry Truman was a very important and effective and admirable president.

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