Since World War II, no president has outdone Dwight Eisenhower in successfully vetoing congressional legislation. He vetoed 181 bills and was overridden only twice. By contrast, Ronald Reagan vetoed 78 and was overridden nine times; Bill Clinton's numbers were 36 and two. What explains Eisenhower's record? (The veto champion was Franklin Roosevelt, with 635 and nine overridden. The current president hasn't vetoed any bill; if he never does, he'd be the first president to do so since James Garfield in 1881.)--Robert Samuelson 1/23/06