The rush to embrace Truman tells us more about contemporary politics than about the realities of his career. The circumstances and attitudes of Bush, McCain, and Palin, have little if any in common with Truman’s. It seems safe to say that Harry Truman would not have subscribed to Bush’s effort to rescue his historical reputation through suggestions that, like Truman, he has pursued wise policies that will eventually be vindicated. Nor would he have looked kindly on McCain’s and Palin’s use of the Truman memory to win an election.>/h3>

— Robert Dallek, presidential historian, on how Republican attempts to compare themselves to Harry Truman are wildly misguided