# Adlai Stevenson II Adlai E. Stevenson II (1900–1965) was the Illinois Governor (1949-1953), two-time Democratic presidential nominee (1952 and 1956, losing both times to [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]), and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under [[John F. Kennedy]] (1961-1965). He was known for his unusually cerebral political style — his speeches were dense, allusive, and intellectually serious, characteristic that admirers called principled-Democratic-intellectualism and that critics called "**egghead**" detachment (the term entered American political vocabulary substantially through Eisenhower-era attacks on Stevenson). He was the grandson of Adlai E. Stevenson I ([[Grover Cleveland]]'s second-term Vice President 1893-1897), the son of a Chicago newspaperman, and an Illinois lawyer who came to political prominence as Governor of Illinois on a reform-Democratic platform. His 1952 nomination came almost reluctantly — he had not sought the nomination and accepted only after multiple party-leader appeals. He lost decisively to Eisenhower in 1952 (442-89 EV) and again in 1956 (457-73). The 1956 rematch produced [[1956 Presidential Election]] events of the pre-2016 era — an Alabama elector cast their vote for Walter Burgwyn Jones rather than Stevenson. As UN Ambassador under Kennedy, Stevenson gave the famous October 25, 1962 **[[Cuban Missile Crisis]]** Security Council confrontation with the Soviet ambassador — "**I'm prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over**" — that ratified the Kennedy administration's resolution of the crisis at the cost of subsequent Stevenson irritation at Kennedy's having kept him uninformed about earlier crisis-management decisions. He died of a heart attack on a London sidewalk in July 1965. ## Right-wing relevance Stevenson's right-wing significance is principally as the operational target of the "**egghead**" framing — the Republican-era characterization of Democratic intellectualism as effete, disconnected-from-Real-America, and politically suspect. The framing has migrated across subsequent Democratic nominees from Kerry through Clinton through Obama to Harris; the operational mechanics are the post-1952 Stevenson-era construction. The framing is also one of the antecedents of post-2016 right-wing "elite vs. real America" rhetoric, with intellectual cosmopolitanism as a recurring target. ## Connections - [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] — Opponent in 1952 and 1956. - [[John F. Kennedy]] — Stevenson's UN role under Kennedy; the two had partial-rivalry over the 1960 nomination. - [[Harry S. Truman]] — Outgoing Democratic president 1952; tapped Stevenson as the party's nominee. ## See also - [[1952 Presidential Election]], [[1956 Presidential Election]] — Stevenson's two losses. ---