The Press: The Case of an Arsonist

The New York press last week ran down and mangled a political career that until then had looked, fairly promising.

Swarthy, thick-maned Charles Poletti is a left-leaning lawyer, usually politically astute. As New York's Democratic Lieutenant Governor, he ran last November to succeed himself, was also backed by the American Labor Party. He lost by a mere 20,000 votes when Rival Thomas W. Wallace rode in with Republican Thomas E. Dewey. But when Governor Herbert Lehman stepped down to become U.S. Director of Foreign Relief, Charles Poletti, licked at the polls, became New York's Governor.

For 29 days he governed the State. After...