Nation: The Slip Was Not a Slide

For a couple of weeks, there had been all sorts of rumors about an unpublished—and, for that matter, unidentified—political poll that showed President Kennedy for the first time dropping below the magic 50% mark in popularity. Several columnists alluded to it. And the New York Post's James Wechsler all but came out and said that it would appear in the next presidential popularity findings of the Gallup poll.

Wrong. This week, when the results of the latest Gallup poll were released, they showed that since early May Kennedy had indeed slipped—from a prosperous 64% to 61%. The main notion behind all...