Quote:
Originally posted by madmax
Not quite. There were four Kennedy brothers. The brother that was the best at just about everything was Joseph Kennedy Jr. He graduated from Harvard and he was the brother Joe Sr had earmarked for the White House.
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Sorry Max,
I was talking about the three who actually served in the Senate and that we are most aware of. Since Joe, Jr. died in military service, he was never really a factor in these discussions. At least that's my take on it. Some might disagree.
In other news...
I think that saying the JFK was "grossly overrated" is grossly overstated.
It's always difficult to compare styles and accomplishments in a totally different time, using totally new criteria. It's kind of like saying that a 1963 Chevy is mediocre campared to a 2003 (or even a 1957 which was one of the neatest cars ever built) It's apples and oranges.
As for the media, Kennedy is often said to have been a master of using it. Not really so, in my professional opinion -- however Nixon and his people were terrible at it, and Kennedy shown by comparison.
In terms of Mafia ties, I don't know that they have ever been proven. There were rumors, though, obviously.
I'm not sure it's fair to compare a president who served less than one full term on his legislative agenda or his record in foreign affairs. And the fact that Nixon would have handled the missle crisis the same way doesn't make JFK's handling of it any less effective.
Vis a vis Vietnam, President Eisenhower was the first president to send advisors there, against the advice of many in the military, and the real buildup didn't come until the Johnson presidency. Hanging much of the "blame" on Kennedy doesn't make any sense to me. From a military standpoint, though, JFK is generally credited with beginning the special operations units we're so entranced with today -- the "Green Berets" (who seldom call themselves that, but rather Special Forces.
In terms of "buying" elections -- that pretty much happens every four years -- and there are a lot of people who would argue that the current president didn't win the last election.
Bottom line for me is that it is difficult to quantify how good or bad a president it -- but all of the presidential historians I've seen and heard over the past couple of weeks have given him pretty high marks, considering the fact that it's difficult to compare his efforts with full and particularly two term presidents.
I lived through the Kennedy presidency (I was in high school at the time), and while he may not have been our best, he was a long way from our worst. If, for no other reason, he helped give a country in the doldrums a kick start.