In a briefing session just before the presidential press conference last week, Press Secretary Jim Hagerty warned his boss that questions on partisan politics had been building up for days. Hagerty passed along samples that had come into his office, and Eisenhower roughly laid out his line of reply. A few moments later, relaxed and ready, the President took his place before 204 reporters in the old State Department treaty room.
The United Press's Merriman Smith cracked the first question. "Mr. President," said he, "the Democrats on Capitol Hill say that bipartisan support...