Philosophically a conservative Democrat,[1] George refrained from endorsing the 1932 presidential nomination of Franklin D. Roosevelt and openly objected to the President's 1937 court packing plan.

He served as Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee from 1941 to 1946 in which he generally supported Roosevelt's handling of World War II.

[2] Nevertheless, George opposed integration in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, and, in the Southern Manifesto, which he not only signed, but formally presented to the Senate,[3] condemned Brown v. Board of Education as the “unwarranted decision of the Supreme Court .

George was an early and leading champion of vocational education, a strict constitutionalist who believed in limited federal government, a fiscal conservative.

Reflecting the esteem with which George was held, 40 members of Congress, including Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, attended his funeral in Vienna, Georgia, and President Dwight Eisenhower ordered flags at all U.S. federal buildings lowered to half-mast.

[5] George resigned from the Supreme Court of Georgia to run for a seat in the United States Senate, which became available due to the death of Thomas E. Watson.

At that time, the Republican Party in Georgia was very weak, so the real re-election contests for George were in the Democratic primaries.

[6] The power of free enterprise, capitalism and markets to create jobs and raise living standards were a key tenet of George’s political philosophy.

[6] (Al Smith from New York received the national nomination but was soundly defeated by Republican candidate Herbert Hoover.

[6] A confidential April 1943 analysis of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by British scholar Isaiah Berlin, working for the British Foreign Office, stated of George:[9] an honourable but narrow Southern Conservative, who incurred the displeasure of the New Deal in 1938 when an unsuccessful attempt to "purge" him was made by its then leaders (in particular, [Edward] Flynn, [Harry] Hopkins, and [Thomas] Corcoran).

[9] In the 1940s, George supported Roosevelt's efforts at military preparedness, including Lend-Lease aid to Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union, already at war, and American defensive buildup in response to the threat posed by Japanese and German militarism.

He reversed his previous opposition to an international agency designed to keep peace by supporting the ratification of the United Nations Charter in 1945.

Especially after the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decisions mid-decade, legislative and political focus on civil rights increased.

At the age of 78, he vacillated on whether to seek re-election since he faced an opponent, Herman Talmadge, noting to President Eisenhower that "if I retire, I want to stay at home and rest.

"[2] While the President and other national politicians favored George’s reelection, Talmadge had the state political machinery built by his father, Eugene, firmly behind him.

[6] Moreover, George's refusal to publicly renounce Brown v. Board of Education harmed his reelection prospects, since segregation became a primary campaign focus.

[2] Balancing his age, reelection prospects and other considerations, George declined to run for re-election, realizing that despite his seniority and leadership in the Senate and the support of Georgia's businesses, his health likely would not withstand the strenuous campaign.