RyanTheColtsFan

I can't figure out what the big deal was about Kennedy. People just loved him, but he wasn't in office all that long and for pretty much his entire term, we were in a war in Vietnam. He and his brother were linked to Marilyn Monroe and other women. That means JFK wasn't faithful to his wife. It's been written that he was on all kinds of drugs for pain. Apparently, his father ripped off everybody when he sold whiskey. What do we really know about the guy that's good? All I've ever heard about is the bad and, frankly, I have little respect for him.

Why the love affair?

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scout

[QUOTE=RyanTheColtsFan]I can't figure out what the big deal was about Kennedy. People just loved him, but he wasn't in office all that long and for pretty much his entire term, we were in a war in Vietnam. He and his brother were linked to Marilyn Monroe and other women. That means JFK wasn't faithful to his wife. It's been written that he was on all kinds of drugs for pain. Apparently, his father ripped off everybody when he sold whiskey. What do we really know about the guy that's good? All I've ever heard about is the bad and, frankly, I have little respect for him.

Why the love affair?[/QUOTE

Welcome to the political forum Ryan. First of all, lets separate the Presidency from personal affairs. If you want to judge JFK on how many woman he slept with then he was a poor President, because he slept with thousands. His term was cut short, so its hard to say what he might have accomplished. LBJ took his initiatives on civil rights and carried them through. Had it not been for Vietnam, LBJ would have ranked as one of the greatest because of what he did in the social movement of our country. JFK, gave us hope. Sounds kind of corny, but his travels to foreign countries (Berlin) and speeches gave our country great goodwill. He kept peace during the Cuban Missile Crisis. This was about as close as we have ever been to a nuclear fallout. The Hawks in his administration wanted to bomb Cuba. Thank God he and his brother favored a more peaceful measure (blockade). His fiscal policies were also favorable to balancing the budget. The number of troops we had in Vietnam were very few. He inherited Vietnam from Eisenhower. It wasn't until LBJ's Presidency that we increased troops substantially. He was a very sick person. Probably should have died a number of times. He hid those sicknesses from the public. It was a different time, as it was during Rooselvelt's Presidency where not too many people knew he couldn't walk.
You want to talk about doing whats best for America at any costs? How about the civil rights movement. As far as Bobby Kennedy was concerned, he had balls. He went after the mob, which was huge in the early 60's. And don't think for a minute that the mob didn't have a number of high powered politicians under their thumbs. Joseph Kennedy was ruthless. He supplied scotch to people who would purchase it and made a lot of money. The Kennedy's may have had their flaws, but they did what was best for this country no matter what the personal cost.

Harry Boy

Old Joe Kennedy the Father (Bootlegger, Mafia Friend) paid millions to splatter the Kennedy's all over the media, the media loved the Kennedy's (Boston Globe still does), old Joe pulled every string that could be pulled to start JFK up the political ladder.

If you keep telling the public something that isn't true over and over and over sooner or later they will believe it.

Little Bobby was the first to meet Marilyn Monroe, after watching her in several of her movies he said "why is this women so popular, she can't act for sh it", so he went to her PR people, the secret was, tell the people she is wonderful enough times and soon they will believe it.

Then he started "humping her", then he passed her on to Jack (they shared their women) another of Old Joes lessons for "his boys".

Old Joe would have been proud of "Uncle Teddy" running away from the bridge that night, "the hell with Mary Jo the coverup is the important thing.

Old Joe taught them well in their treatment of women, he sh it all over Rose, she spent half her life in church praying for the "philanderers"

I never could understand how the "National Organization For Women" could support this family of degenerates.

The Muslims in Iraq treat their Donkeys better than the Kenndy's treat their women.
Poor Joan, Poor Jackie, Poor Ethel, Poor Rose. "POOR MARILYN"

scout

There you have it Ryan, you can listen to what "other" people say, or you can read about the Kennedys. By the way, the little that I have read regarding the Kennedy women regards them as extremely strong willed and independent.

PatsWickedPissah

JFK was a media creation. Telegenic, his deep fundamental character flaws were deliberately and repeatedly hidden from the public by the media because they liked his policies. He did not last long enough in office to pay the inevitable price for his escallation in Vietnam.

Me, I liked his foreign policies, domestic economic policies (e.g. civil rights, bully pulpit with the steel industry, tax cuts followed by economic growth), and allowed him a margin of error (the utterly failed Cuban invasion attempt). This record would never survive today's radacilized press.

DarrylS

Have a hard time with media creation, at that time do not remember much media stuff. For many of us, he was a RC from Mass who spoke with passion and gave us hope. Do not remember us needing hope then, but it felt good, he was a complete extreme of Dwight D and the previous folk. He was down to earth, personable and seemed more like us(even though he was not) than most of the previous presidents. He spoke about us getting involved with our country and did some good things, will never forget the day he died and the following days.

Also disagree with how he treated Jackie, who stood alone as an extremely strong woman who was well bred and dignified. He may have been a womanizer, but somewhere in that personna he spent some good time with his family. Not idealizing the guy, but he gave us something I can never forget and they can write about all the bad crap he did, will never forget his impact on my life.

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"Being the best doesn't mean you always win. It just means you win more than anyone else".. tweet from Kurt Warner to Tom Brady.

Harry Boy

Do you defenders of Clinton/JFK have any concerns at all about a mans "moral character", if a man betrays and lies to his own family what do you think he will do to the country.

The thing that gets me are the "Phony Feminists" in the Democratic party that winked and looked the other way while these two "Horny Dogs" dragged their "SISTERS" through the garbage dump.

Double standard:
If GW Bush was caught holding another womens hand the Democrats would start another "Civil War" demanding his head.

What Nasty Sorer Losing Rats The Democratic Party Has Become, I used to be one of them, but they left me.

DarrylS

Think you need to put this in a historical context, many powerful men at that time did a ton of indiscretions, the difference is that they were not spoken of publicly and there was less scrutiny. This is less of a Democratic or Republican thing, but more of a power thing and something not publicized. Wasn' it around that time that a powerful Republican from the south was caught drunk, frolicing in a public fountain with a hooker?

I cannot defend what Clinton did and not defending what JFK did, only reminding the historical context. But what both did pales in comparison to what GWB did and all of his lies that led us to Iraq and the subsequent deaths of many Iraqis and US soldiers.

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"Being the best doesn't mean you always win. It just means you win more than anyone else".. tweet from Kurt Warner to Tom Brady.

Patters

Kennedy was a very different president than those who came before him. He was youthful and forward looking, and the fact is America before Kennedy is nothing like the America that we have today, which is vastly superior in terms of comforts, lifespan, opportunity, and innovation.

Kennedy was an outstanding, moving, and inspiring speaker. You might check this speech out:

http://www.honors.umd.edu/HONR269J/a...JFK630610.html

The space program and civil rights are two of his biggest accomplishments, but he had many others. He was also a war hero, the first Catholic president (which was an issue back then), forced the Soviets to pull their nuclear missiles out of Cuba, pushed for the first nuclear test ban, helped establish Medicaid and Medicare, and fought fiercely against Soviet communism. As far as Civil Rights goes, there's too much to list, but for a brief summary, take a look at this:

http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/a...ia/enc_JFK.htm

(A football-related thing Kennedy did: when the Washington Redskins refused to sign black football players, Kennedy announced they could no longer use their federally funded stadium.The Redskins suddenly saw the light and hired blacks.)

Kennedy largely purged from the Democratic Party that which Republicans would later harness to win control of the South.

But, the main thing, Kennedy represented a vision for a new America. Before Kennedy, America was largely dominated by old white men and old families. That may still be the case, but we've taken giants steps toward becoming a more equal society. Kennedy got the ball rolling.

gomezcat

The Stanford article is quite illuminating, in that it suggests that Kennedy had to be cajoled into the Civil Rights reforms that he made, following exposure in the national media. Was that due to the influence of the Dixiecrats?

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