Democrats Rebound.

In the off-year elections of 1958 the voters handed the Republican party its worst political defeat in over twenty-five years. The congressional polls sent Democrats to Washington in droves, creating a new Congress in which Democrats would outnumber Republicans in both houses by nearly two to one. Results in the gubernatorial campaigns added to the Republicans' humiliation: the Democrats picked up six governor seats; the Republicans lost five.

Ike Criticized.

Sensing voter discontent over unemployment and fear that America was losing the cold war, a revitalized Democratic party had launched a highly aggressive campaign that was not afraid to take on the White House. The issue of a "missile gap" — the belief, created by the 1957 launching of Sputnik, that the Soviets had better rockets and more of them — had damaged Eisenhower's approval ratings, which dropped below 60 percent. Ike was vulnerable...