Tammany valued an uneducated ally’s authenticity over credentialed polish

Evidence

Charles F. (“Silent Charlie”) Murphy, the unsmiling Irishman who had risen from saloon keeper to the leadership of all Tammany Hall, had been hearing a lot about Smith. Now he said he’d like to meet him. After the meeting, someone said to Murphy, “He’s a nice young fellow. He has a lot of ability. It’s too bad he isn’t a college man.” Murphy looked at the speaker a long moment. “If he was a college man,” he said at last, “he wouldn’t be Al Smith.” — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 533

Categorization

• SHARE: Murphy’s line captures how political machines prized untutored street smarts; worth sending to anyone interested in machine politics or Al Smith.
• XREF: connects to: Being “regular” meant dependable, unquestioning party loyalty in Tammany parlance — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 511; Appeals to authenticity can police and exclude insiders as insufficiently authentic. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 119

Broader Connections

• Being “regular” meant dependable, unquestioning party loyalty in Tammany parlance #qualifies (0.85) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 511
• Appeals to authenticity can police and exclude insiders as insufficiently authentic. #expands (0.80) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 119