A Letter From The Publisher: Oct. 4, 1963

THIRTEEN months before the 1964 U.S. presidential election, there is a bubbling ferment in political circles around the U.S. Who can win? Who's for—and against—whom? Which way is the trend moving? What will the issues be? While they are thinking and talking privately about these questions, political leaders—true to form at this stage of the game—are saying little in public about what they really think. To get at what is in the political minds, TIME set out three weeks ago on a reporting process that is uniquely suited to our kind of journalism.

Reporters...