Politics: Fixing Up Philadelphia

The Republicans lost the 1960 presidential election by the narrowest of margins. But they fared disastrously in the nation's biggest cities. And they suffered catastrophe in Philadelphia, once a G.O.P. stronghold, which gave John Kennedy 623,000 votes against Richard Nixon's 291,000, enabling Kennedy to carry Pennsylvania despite Nixon's plurality of 216,000 outside Philadelphia.

Since the election, the Republican National Committee has officially pinpointed Philadelphia as one of the sorriest examples of the G.O.P.'s big-city performance. So has former Temple University Chancellor Robert L. Johnson, the G.O.P. National Committeeman for Pennsylvania. Said...

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