Democrats: Caresses & Brass Knuckles

The Democratic presidential nomination was all but within Jack Kennedy's reach. His aides jubilantly announced that he had 710 of the needed 761 first-ballot votes at the Democratic Convention; even allowing for the obvious inflation, Kennedy was very close to walking away with the title three weeks before the convention opened. "We'll have the votes reasonably soon," he said, "or not at all."

Getting those last votes was keeping Kennedy on the move. His preconvention windup was aimed in two directions: 1) picking up stray, overlooked delegates in the smaller states, and...