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JFK was a Good President?

TalonStrike

TalonStrike

Senior member
How? People want to talk about saying he saved America during the Cuban Missile Crisis. False. If it weren't for JFK foolishly refusing Eisenhower's advice during the Bay of Pigs Invasion to include air support, there wouldn't even be a Communist Cuba. Why do people think he was such a great president? Was it because he was assassinated? Probably. He was only president for like 2 years and he didn't really accomplish anything.
 
marilyn-31.jpg
 
Argh. I'm considering the entrance price for correcting ignorance like this to be for you to read a book I specify out of several choices for an introduction.
 
TalonStrike said:
How? People want to talk about saying he saved America during the Cuban Missile Crisis. False. If it weren't for JFK foolishly refusing Eisenhower's advice during the Bay of Pigs Invasion to include air support, there wouldn't even be a Communist Cuba. Why do people think he was such a great president? Was it because he was assassinated? Probably. He was only president for like 2 years and he didn't really accomplish anything.
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I went to the JFK museum in Dallas once. Fascinating story. I do think a lot of his legacy was been whitewashed, probably at least partially because he was killed. He served our country honorably in WWII. I think he had some great moments aside from his screw ups.He was a womanizer but who cares- at least he didn't murder someone like the late scumbag Ted Kennedy did, that guy is probably hanging out in hell right about now.

I don't associate the current Democratic party to even remotely resemble that of "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country".
 
Yes, JFK may not have been a good president but look at some of those who followed. When compared to Carter and LBJ he looks less bad.
 
TalonStrike said:
How? People want to talk about saying he saved America during the Cuban Missile Crisis. False. If it weren't for JFK foolishly refusing Eisenhower's advice during the Bay of Pigs Invasion to include air support, there wouldn't even be a Communist Cuba. Why do people think he was such a great president? Was it because he was assassinated? Probably. He was only president for like 2 years and he didn't really accomplish anything.
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LBJ, Carter, Reagan, GWB, and Obama are worse than JFK ever was.
The only president that could have been near JFK are Nixon(besides the watergate scandal and enemies hit list stuff), GHWB, and Bill Clinton.
 
JFK sucked ass and was an illegitimate president. His father may have made an average president though since he was a conservative Democrat.
 
JFK's is considered to be a great president by many for two main reasons - he managed to excite the nation to do great things and he was assassinated while people still loved him.
 
It's kind of hard to judge him fairly when he only had a couple of years in office. I do give him credit for starting the country down the road to putting a man on the moon though.
 
ichy said:
It's kind of hard to judge him fairly when he only had a couple of years in office.
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Can we say the same thing about obama?

Do you "really" want to give obama another 4 years?

As for jfk, I can not think of anything he did in office that really stands out.
 
JFK came at an interesting time. In his short almost 3 years as president, He was a part of more major events than many 2 term presidents. The Civil Rights movement was in full swing, The cold war was raging as it never had, the space race was on, The Berlin wall was constructed, the Vietnam war...

In spite of some very bad decisions like the Bay of Pigs and very unpopular decisions like getting us involved in the Vietnam war he was able to endear himself to the American public.

He knew the value of TV. His television debates with Nixon is a good example. He understood the newish media.

He, at least to the general public, represented the ideal family life. He had a beautiful wife and children. Some of the most iconic photos of his presidency are with his kids in the oval office.

He showed remarkable back bone during the Cuban Missile Crisis. And believe me, if you weren't alive then, you have no idea how terrifying a time this was. This was a time when school children practiced drills in case of nuclear attack. A time where someone building a bomb shelter and stocking up on food and ammo wasn't looked at as some weird survivalist thing, but as something a lot of people wanted to do. A time where people went to bed expecting not to wake up the next day.

You can't lead a nation through a successful resolution of such a crisis without the country looking fondly on you.

Add the assasination of him and his brother and you cement him in the public mind as a great man.
 
Leadership. FDR was before my time but from my parents and others I know he had it in spades.

That was what JFK had.

With it he moved the country into the last great revolution, the information/technology revolution.
 
Texashiker said:
Can we say the same thing about obama?

Do you "really" want to give obama another 4 years?

As for jfk, I can not think of anything he did in office that really stands out.
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LMAO...

Graduated Harvard with a degree in international affairs in June 1940
Published Why England Slept in July 1940, and became a bestseller
Earned the rank of Lieutenant in the Navy in 1941
Received Navy and Marine Corps Medal
Received the Purple Heart
Received the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
Received the World War II Victory Medal
Won the election for U.S. Representative in 1946
Congressman for six years
Won the election of U.S. Senate in 1952
Published Profiles in Courage in 1956
Profiles in Courage was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1957
Became 35th President of the United States of America on January 20th, 1961
Became the youngest man ever elected president
Became the first President to be a boy scout
Founded the Peace Corps
Prevented war with Soviets
Signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
An end to racial discrimination
Proposed what became the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Proposed a tax reform which included income tax cuts, was not passed until 1964
Created the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity

From the JFK presidential library.

http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/...ted-Milestones-of-the-Kennedy-Presidency.aspx

http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/...Information/Civil-Rights-accomplishments.aspx
 
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Personally, I think JKF's biggest achievement was the space race. If we had been beaten to the moon by the Russians who knows how the world would have shifted. Who knows how the missle crisis would have turned out. Think about what that kind of fear would have done to the policy makers in Washington at the time. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that we would probably be living in a much different world today.

Also, JFK would not have survived much longer despite his assassination. Don't get me wrong, while it was still tragic, his days were numbered and he might have expired anyways before finishing out his term. He was in a great deal of pain and his health was quickly deteriorating. He and his staff did a great job hiding this from the general public at the time.
 
Ausm said:
LMAO...

Graduated Harvard with a degree in international affairs in June 1940
Published Why England Slept in July 1940, and became a bestseller
Earned the rank of Lieutenant in the Navy in 1941
Received Navy and Marine Corps Medal
Received the Purple Heart
Received the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
Received the World War II Victory Medal
Won the election for U.S. Representative in 1946
Congressman for six years
Won the election of U.S. Senate in 1952
Published Profiles in Courage in 1956
Profiles in Courage was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1957
Became 35th President of the United States of America on January 20th, 1961
Became the youngest man ever elected president
Became the first President to be a boy scout
Founded the Peace Corps
Prevented war with Soviets
Signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
An end to racial discrimination
Proposed what became the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Proposed a tax reform which included income tax cuts, was not passed until 1964
Created the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity

From the JFK presidential library.

http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/...ted-Milestones-of-the-Kennedy-Presidency.aspx

http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/...Information/Civil-Rights-accomplishments.aspx
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He said "in office." Most of those things happened either before he became president or after he died. The things you do list for when he actually was president are quite superfluous. "An end to racial discrimination"? Really? Wow he must have done a great job with that because there is absolutely no racial discrimination anymore...
 
Craig234 said:
Argh. I'm considering the entrance price for correcting ignorance like this to be for you to read a book I specify out of several choices for an introduction.
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Probably written by someone like Chris Matthews who has an unhealthy obsession with JFK.
 
TalonStrike said:
He said "in office." Most of those things happened either before he became president or after he died. The things you do list for when he actually was president are quite superfluous. "An end to racial discrimination"? Really? Wow he must have done a great job with that because there is absolutely no racial discrimination anymore...
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Go back and read my links where it goes over ALL his accomplishment IN office.

http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/...ted-Milestones-of-the-Kennedy-Presidency.aspx
 
He was incredibly badass in WW2, and managed the Cuban Missile Crisis quite well if you take into account the gung-ho attitude of the military below him doing all they could to spark off a war.
 
Texashiker said:
Can we say the same thing about obama?

Do you "really" want to give obama another 4 years?
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why not? Is there a better alternative? Has he done any differently, and any worse with what he got, than anyone else possibly would have done, and could have done?

the answer is, obviously: Of course he hasn't.

if you think the current state of the economy would have been better, or any different (hell--if the enacted policies and bail outs would not have happened) under a president McCain, or president Santorum, or president Newt, or Romney, then I have a bridge to sell you, somewhere.
 
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