Inspirational is wonderful, just like JFK... however

[OKNancy]

Kennedy did not really accomplish much during his administration.

It took the old hand, the master Lyndon Johnson to get things done.

Lyndon wasn't pretty, his wife wasn't a stunner, he didn't have lofty rhetoric, but when it
came down to it he was the one who created Medicare and Medicaid, passed poverty legislation,
environmental and consumer legislation and importantly, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, voting rights in '65 and the 1968 civil rights act.

I'm sure folks will mention his flaws and the war, but my point is that sometimes it takes more
than words to get things done.

( I will support and do everything I can no matter who we nominate. The top four are fantastic IMO )

[cali]

1. You might consider that much of the reason that Kennedy's accomplishments

were limited, was because he was killed after less than 3 years in office.

[napi21]

2. That;'s true, but Lydon was willing to scrap his political career

to do what he believed was the right thing. Do you think any of our candidates in 08 would be willing to do that?

[aquart]

6. In reference to what?

[napi21]

9. One thing was signing the civil rights act. He not only scrapped

his political career but he said at the time he was destroying the future of the Dem Party for decades!

[Fredda Weinberg]

8. Yup. A Clinton took a chance on a tax cut for the wealthiest. Damn, our party

paid, but it gives us a practical method for recovery. I want another chance at peace and prosperity in my lifetime.

[OKNancy]

3. That's obvious and not my point

A short post does not demand a history lesson. As a former history teacher, I could
certainly post many lenghty lessons, but it's early and it wouldn't matter on DU anyway.

[aquart]

4. 3 years with all major legislation blocked.

In 100 days, with the nation in shock, Johnson rammed them all thru. So there is no evidence whatsoever that four or eight years of JFK would have gotten anything more done than he did.

It's a handy thing to remember when you're assigning sainthood to his martyrdom.

I hated Johnson with a white hot passion, but he got good things done until he confused his dick with the war.

[Ken Burch]

5. Wrong. It took the physical courage of the CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

to get those last three acts passed.

Without the Freedom Riders, without the martyrdom of Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King, Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman, and so many others, nothing would have been done about civil rights.

And without JFK's assassination, the antipoverty legislation would have gone nowhere, Johnson or no Johnson.

And then Johnson went ahead and knowingly doomed us a Second Republican Ascendancy (1968-present) by refusing to admit Vietnam was lost from the start and by forcing through the nomination of Humphrey as an all out hawk in Chicago.

So no, it isn't all about LBJ.

(btw, Edwards could rise to the occasion, and possibly Obama too, but we KNOW HRC would never fight for the poor or the workers and would try to find a "nuanced" approach on civil rights. What Bill did on the Defense of Marriage Act proves what DLC Dems are really about on things like that. We can assume she wouldn't deviate in the slightest.)

[aquart]

7. We didn't say he did it because he was a darling.

He wasn't a darling. And you're right about the people who gave their lives in the Civil Rights struggle. (Andy Goodman, Queens College Theatre program, he died just before I started so all the seniors knew him and they talked as they tried to process it.)

Kennedy was great for image, great for speeches, and damned fine for courage. But the legislation sat. I remember that.

[SCDem]

11. Ask not what your country can do for you

It was great rhetoric that moved millions.

Ask not - inspired Clinton to think bigger than Hope, Arkansas.
Ask not - inspired Senator Chris Dodd to not just serve his country in the military but also in the Peace Corps

Asking the population to take their skill and help lead the country out of darkness is more than just rhetoric.

[Fredda Weinberg]

10. At the time, it was hard to avoid the "star making machinery"

You had to almost be blind ... fortunately for me, I didn't get corrective lenses until '66. Turns out, I missed out on a great deal of imprinting.