It's 1936; Alf Landon is sure to be the next President; Robert eyes the teacher's laundry soap (for cleansing foul mouths) uneasily when he inadvertently lets slip the word ""Democrat""; and best buddy Soup is running for president of the class. Despite his tender feelings for the opposing candidate, Norms Jean Bissell, Robert does a hang-up job as Soup's campaign manager, outfitting his candidate with a mustache from the barber shop floor so he can rearrange the letters on county tax collector Kapuso's poster and use it as his own, and painting huge red letters on the side of Cyrus McCormick's barn. (What in tarnation is a SOUF, asks McCormick, as Robert hasn't left quite enough room to complete the P.) The ending, with Norma Jean herself casting the decisive vote for Soup, exposes even the fair-minded Mr. Peck to charges of unconscious sexism; and throughout--right up to the romantic fadeout--he lays on the hayseed innocence just as thick as ever. But it's hard not to laugh at some of the corny complications.