THE PRESIDENCY: State of the Union

The applause that greeted President Eisenhower as he strode down the aisle of the House to deliver his seventh annual State of the Union message last week was warm and enthusiastic—as if designed to show that the glittering assemblage of Congressmen, Cabinet members, Supreme Court justices, foreign diplomats and distinguished visitors, almost to a man, liked Ike. Just as unmistakable was the fact that never before in his presidency had Dwight Eisenhower confronted a Congress—almost two-thirds Democratic—so openly skeptical of his programs and philosophy, so thoroughly pervaded on the eve of...