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Baker was a considerable personage.

Norman Davis hadn't ceased to be a factor. So I think that a good many people felt that Al Smith's entry into the convention would bring about a certain number of votes to him that they could then trade for their own candidates. I'm sure he was astute enough to see this, and I have often wondered if he really thought he would be nominated. I never knew in my own mind if he was really sure he would be nominated. Mrs. Moskowitz, I think, felt that it could be pulled off, that if it was pulled off the party would get behind him, and there would be sufficient strength to make a good campaign.

On the other hand, it's just possible that she was also manipulating with the theory that they could defeat Franklin Roosevelt, who was showing ambitions. She was very bitter, vituperative and really hateful toward Roosevelt. She was unreasonable about it and didn't have any objectivity at all in her attitudes. She translated in terms of an insult to Smith what might very well have been taken merely as an insult or rejection of herself. She chose to make it appear to be a rejection of Smith, and got that thing permanently fixed in his mind, although I do not think at the time it took place that it was in any way a rejection of Smith. I don't think Roosevelt had any idea of rejecting Smith when he wouldn't take Mrs. Moskowitz as his secretary.