Jacob Conrad wrote:
>
> projected a down-home, folksy image, which caused Harold Ickes (Sr.) to make
> one of the most famous quips in American political history: Yep, said Ickes,
> that Wendell Willkie's just a "simple, barefoot Wall Street lawyer."
As I remember the phrase, it had a better rhythm, "barefoot boy from Wall Street."
You give a good summary of the politics of the time.
There was a rumor that shortly before Roosevelt's death he and Wilkie had together been discussing the possibility of both bolting their respective parties and forming a new "progressive" party. I can't remember where I heard this & haven't the slightest ideas whether there's anything to it or not.
Carrol