Moses dismissed Al Smith as a typical machine politician
Evidence
Moses’ own mood was one new to him. He seemed confused and worried. With his thirtieth birthday less than a month away, not only dreams but hopes had disappeared. He had been trained for work in government, but with Hylan in control in New York there was obviously no place for him in city government. He had no connections in Washington. There was a new Governor in New York State, elected in an upset—Alfred E. Smith—but Smith was a Tammany man, one of the Tammany men, in fact, who had been most vociferous in scorn of Moses’ civil service proposals. Moses had met Smith several years before, when he had been city sheriff, and had not been at all impressed by the short, paunchy Irishman with the red face, gold-filled teeth and loud, rasping voice. “He is a typical Tammany politician,” he said to a friend at the time. “What can you expect from a man who wears a brown derby on the side of his head and always has a big cigar in the corner of his mouth?” — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 385
Categorization
- QUESTION: Caro emphasizes Moses’ snobbery and blindness here; this misjudgment of Smith matters enormously for the arc of Moses’ whole career. Worth tracking how the two eventually collided or allied.
- XREF: Connects to themes of class contempt and political idealism in other works in the library that deal with elites misreading working-class politicians. — connects to: Al Smith entered politics for advancement, not to help the poor — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 505; Reformers underestimated Al Smith by judging him through Tammany stereotypes. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 403; Robert Moses and Al Smith shared a bond ended only by death — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 493 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Al Smith entered politics for advancement, not to help the poor
#corroborates(1.00) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 505