27. Who But Hoover?

Calvin Coolidge chose not to run for a second term in 1928. Long-time Republicans were suspicious of Hoover's activist approach to government, but they had little choice but to accept the popular Commerce Secretary.  

In fact, Herbert Hoover was the ideal candidate whose past achievements dazzled America. The man had fed Belgium, ran the U.S. Food Administration, revolutionized the Department of Commerce, and ministered to victims of the Mississippi flood. He was more realistic than President Wilson, more respectable than President Harding, more imaginative than President Coolidge, and more conservative than his Democratic opponent, New York Governor Alfred E. Smith.

Hoover was nominated on the first ballot at the Republican Party convention along with the vice presidential running mate, Kansas Senator Charles Curtis. Millions of Americans agreed by chanting, "Who But Hoover?"

Cartoon by Talburt, 1928.