THE PRESIDENCY: The Baffling Week

PRESIDENT STAYS BY FIRESIDE AGAIN EISENHOWER GOES FOR AUTO RIDE

So ran the headlines over Thomasville, Ga. datelines last week during what longtime White House reporters deemed the most baffling of all Dwight Eisenhower's presidential weeks. Reason for bafflement : for the first time no one even tried to keep up the appearance that the vacationing President was in daily command of U.S. affairs.

The President's cold, which had nagged him for weeks, was about over. On the rare occasions when he emerged from the Milestone estate lodge of ex-Treasury Secretary George Humphrey, he looked vigorous. But the fact remained that...