Was Dewey considered some sacraficial lamb in 1944?

[Adam Griffin]

Foreign policy experience was and is overrated by punditry. We haven't elected a President with meaningful foreign policy experience in over 30 years; most VPs lack it too, if you exclude modern-day all-inclusive hotel trips to foreign countries to talk to leaders and "influencers" for a few hours at a time or serving on meaningless Senate subcommittees.

In all likelihood, the fatigue expectation was probably more of a factor than anything. Contrasting a young candidate with an old (and by then, largely known crippled) incumbent seeking an unprecedented fourth term was the best they could hope for: flipping NY was the single-biggest piece of the electoral puzzle the GOP needed at the time to retake the Presidency. If they managed to flip a few large Northeastern and Midwestern states, that was the ball game basically (especially during a time where the vast bulk of non-Southern states weren't blow-outs or "safe" by today's standards; the Presidency was basically decided by a half-dozen big states that were all within 5 points).