The Presidency: How to Handle a Broom

One secret of success for any U.S. President is to prove himself the keeper of his own political household—and last week John Kennedy proved himself a housekeeper of rare skills. He whisked around nearly a dozen White House staffers and State Department officials in such a fashion that even those most immediately involved could not quite tell whether they had been swept in or out of presidential favor.

Human nature being what it is, some people are simply not other people's cup of tea, and John Kennedy, a positive, pragmatic product of...