"Elitist" liberals

Television played a huge role in the 1952 presidential race between Democrat Adlai Stevenson and Republican Dwight Eisenhower. For the first time, voters saw an intellectual governor of Illinois who attended Princeton University, Harvard Law School, and Northwestern University, and who eliminated needless spending from payrolls, brought mobsters to court, increased aid to education, and constructed new roads. The fact that Stevenson was smart and eloquent made him appear aloof to Republicans and working-class Democrats.

On the other side Americans saw a great war hero. Although he had zero political experience and finished school with average grades, he was the folksy one of the two candidates because he smiled a lot and didn't appear as formal as his opponent. Eisenhower was the guy with the easily digestible campaign slogan ("I Like Ike") and the vague promises of ending corruption in Washington.

It was also the first time that a liberal was labeled an "egghead." Stewart Alsop, a powerful Connecticut Republican, made the term popular in a column he penned weeks before the election. It pretty much sealed the deal as Eisenhower pummeled Stevenson in 1952 and again in 1956.