1948 Election

Truman is famous for his come-from-behind reelection in the year 1948. During the spring of this year his public gave him a thirty six percent chance of winning. At the Democratic National Convention Harry S. Truman placed a civil rights plank within the party platform. This was designed to compromise the northern and southern sections of his party. Harry was actually so widely expected to lose that newspapers posted the wrong headlines that he had lost when in fact he had done the opposite. The way the votes were counted was over the phone and most people at the time did not own a phone which changed the data between Truman and his opponent, Thomas Dewey. The final and correct total added up was 303 votes to Truman and 189 votes to Dewey.
Ben G

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_S_Truman#Election_of_1948