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So, we've discussed three possible contenders in the President's mind to succeed him - Byrnes, Hopkins and Wallace. Paul McNutt was a more serious contender really than any of those three. The President was certainly not attempting to help him, at any rate. I really doubt if the President honestly thought of either Hopkins and Byrnes as successors.

Quite early, in my presence, the President asked Jim Farley and Frank Walker what they thought about Byrnes, either as a Presidential or Vice Presidential candidate. That was sometime in the first half of 1940, between January and June, I think. I don't think it was earlier because up until then you couldn't get the President to even mention the fact that there was going to be a Presidential election. That was one of Jim Farley's great gripes about him. He wouldn't come down to grips with the fact that in 1940 we were going to elect a President of the United States, and one way or another things would be different in 1941. Jim could never get him to rivet his attention on it. He was just too interested in other things. The war had come on and it was very distracting. He also didn't want to think about it. I'm sure that Jim's complaint that the President was pushing it off was correct. He was pushing