ABSTRACT
Within the confines of Abilene’s little Plaza Theater he conducted a press conference that salvaged his image. Again before television cameras, he left little room for listeners to mistake his political position or wistfully to believe, as so many had been doing for some half dozen years, that his creed would inevitably be compatible with their own. More relaxed than during the outdoor speech, and smiling and scowling with natural ease, he thrust considerably to the right of the men who had promoted his candidacy. Desire to avoid partisan politics, he explained, had kept him from registering as a Republican when leaving the Army in 1948; nevertheless, he had voted for Dewey’s Presidential candidacy that year. He had also been for Senator John Foster Dulles during the special New York State election of 1949 and had supported Dewey’s re-election as Governor in 1950.
