Taking the Right Off Autopilot

I fell in love with politics as a little kid in 1956, when I spotted a big neon sign atop a downtown office building flashing its four capital letters to spell I . . . L I K E . . . I K E. Campaign ad budgets were not as lavish back then.

I did like Ike, especially after I got to shake his hand. My politically active, staunchly Republican father managed to position me directly in President Eisenhower’s path at a Pittsburgh campaign appearance that fall. The press loved the little guy in a plaid blazer presenting the president with a drawing of a Halloween pumpkin, and the photo ran in newspapers across the country. The next day, the president sent me a thank you note from the White House.

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