Americans have sometimes cherished a blunt directness in their politicians. But that particular "give-'em-hell" charm, as Spiro Agnew has never discovered, demands, besides truculence, an implicit instinct for the underdog. It is the charm of the anti-bully.
Toward the end of his 32-day world tour, in which he isolated himself from ordinary citizens and from most of the sights and sounds of the countries he visited, the Vice President delivered himself of some gratuitous remarks about blacks. Having met with three African leaders —Ethiopia's Haile Selassie, the Congo's Joseph Mobutu and Kenya's Jomo Kenyatta—Agnew told U.S. newsmen traveling with him that...
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