The Nation: The President Defends a Policy and a Man

THE President had planned to wear his domestic hat last week. He flew to Des Moines to push his revenue-sharing plan and other legislative reforms before receptive audiences: the Iowa state legislature and a group of Midwest Governors. But he was jeered even in Middle America by an improbable combination of hardhat construction workers and youthful war protesters. He could not shake the uncomfortable reminders of the war in Indochina.

The news from Laos was alternately good and bad (see THE WORLD). Although the domestic reaction had produced no new surge of street...