At the Democratic National Convention of 1928, the nomination on the first ballot was given to Governor Alfred E. Smith of New York. In his acceptance speech at the convention, Smith stated that his goal if elected as president was to liberalize prohibition. This was not the way to win the votes of the people of the United States in 1928. Another mistake he made was to select a national party chairman who was a Catholic, a "wet", a general motors executive, and a former republican. Governor Smith was distrusted by small town, rural Americans because he was also a Catholic, a "wet", a son of Irish immigrants, and a Tammanyite. Smith had previously been nominated by Franklin D. Roosevelt for the presidency in 1920 and 1924 in which he dubbed him the "happy warrior". In the election of 1928, Smith was defeated by Herbert Hoover. Many critics say that no democratic nominee could have won the presidency that year because it was not a democratic year. It is obvious although that many votes were lost because he was a "wet". One good result of the election, according to historians, is the fact that Smith won back the big cities for democrats as well as a large number of the western farmers. After the election, Smith never again sought political office but he did go on to do more remarkable things. He served as president of the Empire State, Inc. in New York City, the corporation that erected and operated the Empire State Building. He was also a very forceful opponent of FDR's New Deal. It is very apparent that Alfred E. Smith was one of the most capable and hard-working leaders in politics of his time.