"No Governor Who Came to Albany After Him Was Half So Consequential"

"In retrospect, it seems obvious that a candidate The Progressive thought might be 'a Republican F.D.R.' and Adlai Stevenson considered 'a thoughtful and sincere liberal' never stood the slightest chance of winning the Republican nomination for president. Rockefeller, who served in the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations, worshiped Roosevelt and thought Ike lacked sufficient boldness. How could a candidate to the left of Eisenhower hope to win Republican votes nationwide?

"It didn't seem so obvious then."

Timothy Noah in The New York Times reviews Richard Norton Smith's On His Own Terms: A Life of Nelson Rockefeller.