When her eldest son Jimmy began running for governor of California, it became virtually mandatory that Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt travel west and say a good word for the boy: the omission of such a rite would have given the Republicans a chance to boast that even his own mother wouldn't stump for him. But to Mrs. Roosevelt, who must reconcile the duties of motherhood with those of politics, the journey presented complications.
For one thing, she could not go to California without also giving a cheer for her longtime friend, Democratic Senatorial Candidate Helen Gahagan Douglas. And Candidate Helen was not...