The Presidency: An Excess of Moderation?

The predictable party-line statements resounded across Capitol Hill as soon as the President had finished talking. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield managed to see in John F. Kennedy's State of the Union message "the authentic earmark of greatness." To Senate Republican Leader Everett Dirksen it was "like a Sears, Roebuck catalogue with the old prices marked up." Indiana's G.O.P. Senator Homer Capehart described it as "more inconsistent than any message I have listened to in my eighteen years in the U.S. Senate." And new House Ma jority Leader Carl Albert called it "the finest State of the Union message...

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