Was Truman going to win the popular vote regardless in 1948?

[twenty42]

When we look back on 1948 it was one of the biggest upsets in political history, with Truman winning the PV by 4.48% and taking 303 EV's despite unanimous predictions of a Dewey victory.

But looking at the state results, Truman won OH, CA, and IL by 0.24%, 0.44% and 0.84%, respectively. This bundle of states was worth 88 EV's, and pushed Truman above the 266 EV threshold needed to win the White House. This would mean that Dewey could have lost the PV by 3.63% and still won the presidency, or even lost it by 4.03% and pushed the election into the Republican-controlled House.

So my question is, were pundits calling for a PV/EV split that would benefit Dewey, or was Truman not even supposed to win the PV? The latter would make the upset infinitely more impressive.

[Bidenworth2020]

i think he probably wins the pv he gets 397 evs

[Ye We Can]

No. Polling done after the election showed a record number of voters made up their minds in the last couple weeks of the election (perhaps as many as 1/5th of the electorate!) Dewey could of easily of passed by Truman had he reverted to form.