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The John Batchelor Show

S8 Ep338: THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATION OF ALF LANDON Colleague David Pietrusza. The Republican Party searches for a candidate to challenge FDR, rejecting a return of Herbert Hoover. After considering isolationist William Borah and publisher Frank Knox, they settle on

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

News, Arts, Books, Society & Culture

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2026

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATION OF ALF LANDON Colleague David Pietrusza. The Republican Partysearches for a candidate to challenge FDR, rejecting a return of Herbert Hoover. After considering isolationist William Borah and publisher Frank Knox, they settle on Kansas Governor Alf Landon. Known as the "Kansas Coolidge," Landon is a progressive Republican who balanced his state budget, though he is considered unexciting. William Randolph Hearst throws his support behind Landon, ordering his papers to praise the governor. Landon secures the nomination largely because the GOP talent pool was decimated by previous election losses, making his rise to the top a "fluke." NUMBER 6
1936 SUMMER OLYMPICS AND CHILE MILITARY  IN ATTENDANCE

Transcript

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0:51.3

I'm John Boucher with David Petrucia, Roosevelt Sweeps Nation, and we go to the nominees for the Republican Party in 1936 to face the president running for re-election.

0:55.8

The president weighed down by all these opponents. And we need a Republican opponent because that will be the major party. And the first Republican opponent in the

1:00.9

president's mind is, I want to run against Hoover. Does the Republican Party want to run Hoover, David?

1:06.8

Well, you might not want to relitigate 1929 and 1932 again.

1:14.1

So while there's a little bit of nostalgia for him and he gives a whiz-bang talk at the Republican National Convention, no.

1:23.7

The answer is absolutely not.

1:26.2

We don't want to go there again.

1:28.4

And Hoover reluctantly backs away.

1:31.8

I say reluctantly because he's making better speeches now.

1:35.2

You note that he's not stuck the way he was in 28,

1:38.4

very hard, very difficult and what you say, slow-paced presentation. He's making much furrier remarks,

1:46.5

but we need to go to the other choice, at least early in the year. William Borah, known as the

1:52.4

Lion of Idaho, another character that you can't make up, David. So much of this strikes me all

1:57.8

these decades later as characters out of a novel, not out of history.

2:02.8

What do we need to know about Bora and did Roosevelt want to run against Bora?

...

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