Eisenhower's Direction: Down the Middle

Before some of the races in the century's closest election were decided, and while the professionals were still muttering amid their charts and graphs, the President of the U.S. stepped before bleary-eyed reporters in the nation's capital one day last week and delivered, off-the-cuff. a clear, one-sentence analysis: "I believe that the voters feel they want to avoid extremes."

Adjusting to Center. His point, while not the only or the most important lesson of the 1954 election, was easy to document. What happened in Colorado was a striking, one-state capsule: the voters there chose...