I think Dirksen enjoyed being in the miinority, an attitude that prefigures the "stupid party" politicians we have today.
Eisenhower/Nixon beat Adlai Stevenson/John Sparkman. As wishy-washy as Ike was politically (he was asked to run as a Democrat as well, if memory serves, but ran as a Republican because he was concerned about the survival of a two-party system), he took 457 votes in the Electoral College, vs 73 for Stevenson. I doubt Taft would have won, or at least not by that kind of margin.
Eisenhower won reelection in 1956, again taking 457 electoral votes. He was only the second Republican POTUS to win two terms in his own right and serving both of them out -- the first was Ulysses Grant. The second to do it was Ronald Reagan. The third one was Bush Junior.
the ev and jerry show
Taft would have won easily.
Bush Jr is one illustration of why two terms for a Republican President can be a bad thing.