Today is Henry A. Wallace's birthday. He was FDR's second vice president and, until the previous VP, John Nance Garner, a committed New Dealer. In perhaps his most famous speak, he stated that, “Men and women can never be really free until they have plenty to eat, and time and ability to read and think and talk things over.” It's hard to imagine a mainstream politician of any stripe saying something like that these days. Wallace proved to be too left-leaning for the more conservative members of his party. FDR dropped him from the ticket in the 1944 in favor of Harry S Truman, who became president only a couple months after getting sworn in.