John Fitzgerald Kennedy

[B_Hickboy]

He didn't take no mess. He wanted to be everybody's friend, but wouldn't tolerate bullshit. He was a man, the last gunslinger. He understood that if it foams at the mouth, you shoot it.

I remember that fucked up day, 48 years ago today. Things got lots worse at breakneck speed after that day, and they continue to deteriorate. What a life, what a loss. We haven't seen the like of him since, and I fear we never will.

 

[AtomicMouse1950]

I was 13 when it happened. I shook me very much. It took me a long while to get over it.

 

[ConanTheBarber]

He's vastly over-rated as a president. In polls, Americans often rank him up with the best, but historians place him on a much lower shelf.
His domestic achievements were slight, and he was a dangerous gunslinger in his foreign dealings.
There were questions that fall about whether he would even be re-elected.
His early and tragic death, so young, gave him a sanctifying halo.
But what we love about Kennedy is what we project on him ... not what he actually was and did.

 

[B_jeepguy2]

The worst thing about the assassination of JFK is that it made LBJ president.

 

[D_Bob_Crotchitch]

The worst thing about the assassination of JFK is that it made LBJ president.

This is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. LBJ did so much damage to this country, and it never has recovered.

 

[BigGlansDC]

And then in 1968 were assassinated in a space of two months Martin Luther King and JFK's brother Robert who was running for President then. Our never recovered from the loss of the two Kennedy's and MLK.

Thom.

 

[D_Bob_Crotchitch]

The Kennedy clan had enormous personal charisma. Their skills as leaders, and personal integrity were questionable.

 

[wappingite]

This is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. LBJ did so much damage to this country, and it never has recovered.

Hmm....didn't LBJ finally push the Civil Rights Act of 1964 over the line? I'd say this was about one of the most important things in American society during that decade if not century.

 

[D_Bob_Crotchitch]

It was the demonstrations of the masses that pushed the civil rights act over the line. Black, white, all races, and religions joined together to put the heat on Washington.
LBJ pushed us to deeper involvement in Vietnam. He helped create the "Great Society" that has been nothing but a disaster.

If it had not been for stolen ballots in Jim Wells County, he'd never have received the nomination for Senator from Texas. The man was a crook through and through.

 

[wappingite]

LBJ used JFKs death from the bully pulpit to push through the Civil Rights Act. As a southerner, he was better able to twist arms. He does deserve some credit.

But the thing about most politicians and powerful families whether the Kennedys or LBJ is that there is some kind of corruption, nepostism or unfair advantage that helps them along the way. JFK wasn't a crook directly per se but his father was surely questionable. How much "dirty" money was put into his campaigns along the way?

I really think it's a moot point though. JFK is always going to remembered as part of the social rights struggle that embodies JFK, MLK, and RFK. There's the short term view of someone after they die which is often emotional, then history will be rewritten when all those who remember them are dead as well. Only then will it be objective. I think it will always be positive though for JFK because of what he embodied with things like "As not what you can do...", Berlin, the excitement of youth and change, etc. in a dangerous time (Cuban missle crisis), even with blunders like the Bay of Pigs and Marilyn.

 

[thirteenbyseven]

Forty-eight years is enough time that most of us, even a middle-aged man like myself born seven years after Kennedy was assassinated, to think of the tragic event in purely historical terms.

Driving home from LAX airport late last night there was an author named Mark Lane on KFI radio talking conspiracy and that the C.I.A. was responsible. The C.I.A. or the mob or Castro; who knows what reality is at this point? However, the Warren Commission one-lone-nut theory sounds about as plausible as a bunch of camel drivers who couldn't fly straight-and-level in trainer Cessna 172s suddenly becoming Top Gun pilots in Boeing 757s and 767s during 9/11.

 

[superbot]

Ah,the hollow myth of the Kennedys...

 

[D_Bob_Crotchitch]

LBJ used JFKs death from the bully pulpit to push through the Civil Rights Act. As a southerner, he was better able to twist arms. He does deserve some credit.

If you were a native Texan whose family had been there for generations, you probably wouldn't think so highly of LBJ. My grandparents lived in Alice where the ballot box was stolen and burned to give LBJ the nomination. My grandfather was deeply involved in the oil business, and knew the stuff that went on behind the scenes. The man was rotten to the core.

As far as JFK not having mob connections, Giancana's daughter wrote several tell all books about things that went on in their house. She saw JFK in their house more than once talking to her father. The 1960 presidential election was won by around 20k votes, and it happened in Chicaco.

Something never released in the press was Bobby Kennedy's name was on the airline passenger list to dear old MM's town the day before she was murdered.

Peeps forget there was discussion in Congress about beginning an investigation, and possible impeachment proceedings involving JFK. He was fooling around with a mobster's gf. People connected to General Dynamics broke into her place, and stole things connecting her to him. General Dynamics wanted this huge tank contract, and they weren't going to get it. By Kennedy's own executive order, they suddenly got the contract. That stirred up problems for him in Congress.

I still think the mob did him in, and will till I die.