Posted by Dan Greenfield on Nov 4, 2026
RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale This Week — in 1948!
Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 78 years ago… This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott and I are selecting comics that came out the week of Nov. 4, 1948. Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of Oct. 28, 1967. Click here to check it out. (Keep in mind that comics came out on multiple days, so these are the issues that went on sale between Nov. 1 and Nov. 7.) So, let’s set the scene: DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN. Only not. The 1948 presidential election was expected to be a big win for Republican New York Gov. Tom Dewey, who had taken on President Truman, a Democrat who wasn’t terribly popular, even within his own party. As the early returns came in the evening of Nov. 2, Dewey was performing strongly, and the right-leaning Chicago Daily Tribune had a particularly early deadline for its first edition. Relying on those returns, the expectations going into Election Day, and the expertise of Washington correspondent and political analyst Arthur Sears Henning, the first edition went off with the banner headline, DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN. But the votes were still being counted and Truman’s numbers kept increasing: He not only won — it was a blowout: 303–189–39 in electoral votes (the 39 going to racist Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond). Truman fell shy of a majority of the popular vote, but still beat Dewey by a solid four points, 49.5 percent to 45.1. Two days after the election, Truman was at a stop in St. Louis, where — with a big grin — he held up the Tribune, and crowed, “That ain’t the way I heard it!” IN OTHER NEWS — The Arab-Israeli War was raging and, despite relatively brief periods of calm, it feels like it’s still going, nearly 80 years later. In late October, the flag of Israel was adopted. — The pivotal Liaoshen Campaign in the Chinese Civil War ended Nov. 2 with a decisive Communist victory. All of Manchuria fell to the Communists. — On Nov. 5, filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, a Hitler favorite, was cleared by a German denazification court, much to the chagrin of the German press. The decision would be appealed and Riefenstahl would be tried three more times before getting cleared for good in 1952. She was deemed a Nazi follower, but not a party...
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