In 1948 he was at the height of his political powers, so dominating a figure in the Senate that The New Republic wrote that “Congress now consists of the House, the Senate, and Bob Taft.” His career was also on a collision course with political realities. Despite others’ attempts to make him better at public relations, he retained a basic wariness of any attempts to shape his public image. Photo opportunities were arranged to show him with a dead turkey, which readers were apparently to believe he had shot. He posed in a business suit with the dead bird; he and the turkey seemed to have no
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