The Campaign: What Kind of Madness?

With the publication of the absorbing, fact-filled Warren Commission report, the U.S. this week harked back to the still vivid day last November when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. In a campaign year, the mood also stirred memories of the hard-fought 1960 election that sent Jack Kennedy to the White House. It was a vigorous, meaningful campaign that year; not merely for the famous television debates, but for hard questions asked and swiftly answered, issues clearly staked out and hotly debated, position papers, policy speeches, and an intellectual challenge in almost every...