Give 'em hell, Harry!

"I never gave anybody hell! I just told them the truth and they thought it was hell."

Harry S. Truman, 33rd President, 1945-1953

Truman faced major obstacles  in the 1948 election. Nobody thought he had a chance to win the election as he was only president because he had ascended to the job when Franklin D. Roosevelt had died.
A major component of Truman’s strategy was not directed at his opponent. Although, the phrase “Give’em hell, Harry” became a phrase someone in the audience shouted at every whistle stop and has come to characterize the campaign, Truman employed one of the greatest political strategies in American history, directing most of his attacks at what became known as the “Do-Nothing 80th Congress” and the Republican Party rather than Dewey, the Republican candidate, himself.
Truman tirelessly logged over 21,000 miles on the campaign trail, mainly by train, in what has come to be know as "the whistle Stop Campaign. He worked with the labor unions and the emerging civil rights movements and scored one of the greatest upsets in Presidential history.