Shamalot
Commentary Magazine,
by
P.J. O'Rourke
Original Article
Posted By: Pluperfect,
11/20/2020 4:48:53 AM
Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what the Kennedys ever did for your country. Bring the monkey’s paw of being telegenic into politics? Of all the things that the American political system needed, this was the last. And whatever it was that the Kennedys did, they did most of it a long time ago. The assassination of John F. Kennedy is almost as distant in time as the assassination of William McKinley was when Kennedy took office.
McKinley, by the way, also had great personal popularity. And greater political support, having won reelection in 1900
Reply 1 - Posted by:
TruthFetish 11/20/2020 6:25:57 AM (No. 611257)
From National Lampoon's funniest writer, back when NL was funny.
7 people like this.
Now THIS is an article that should be a MUST READ. Anyone still harboring fantasies regarding JFK simply MUST read this healthy dose of reality. Can we please stop with the Kennedy worship? This is America. We are not suppose to be worshiping "kings".
16 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
walcb 11/20/2020 7:56:38 AM (No. 611304)
Replace Jack Kennedy with Barry Obama and the word charm with cool and the story is the same (minus the rich father and the heterosexual tendency).
11 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
FunOne 11/20/2020 8:05:15 AM (No. 611316)
Being an assassinated president seems to bring bonus points to the enhancement of one's legend. So it was with JFK. From a positive standpoint, there is evidence that he might have been the last democrat in the White House to "Put America First", as those democrat presidents to follow him seemed to put the democrat party interests at higher priority. He set high goals for America such as to put a man on the moon, yet led us into a quagmire in Vietnam.
He is generally promoted as a young, popular president full of "vigor", yet the reality was that his chance of being reelected was in question. He was trolling for votes on his fateful trip to Dallas.
5 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
StormCnter 11/20/2020 8:32:52 AM (No. 611342)
The media protected John Kennedy at least as enthusiastically and carefully as they do for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
I remember when Lyndon Johnson was running against Kennedy in the 1960 primary. His campaign manager was John Connally. Connally tried valiantly to expose Kennedy's medical condition, including Addison's Disease and the bone deterioration that can follow the treatments. Newspapers ignored the attempt to raise an alarm and Kennedy spokesmen loudly and emphatically denied that Kennedy had Addison's.
5 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
ROLFNader 11/20/2020 8:41:43 AM (No. 611348)
Agree wholeheartedly with #1. I just finished reading "Parliament of Whores" for the third time. If you want to know how Washington's swamp really works(and always has) , it's a masterpiece, full of laugh-out-loud satirical history.
2 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Newtsche 11/20/2020 8:49:57 AM (No. 611355)
It's kinda say O'Rourke has nothing better to do than pore over another very, very bad book on Kennedy but as one who lived through those snow blind times, I'm glad PJ did.
5 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Newtsche 11/20/2020 8:50:54 AM (No. 611356)
:"sad" not "say", jeez...
1 person likes this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
czechlist 11/20/2020 9:19:09 AM (No. 611388)
Even though I was an early teen during JFK's "thousand days" I recall the turmoil of the age. Cuban missiles, Vietnam, Krushchev/Russia, civil rights .He was weak. The reason JFK was in Dallas was he had to win Texas for re -election (the reason LBJ was veep). He was not the popular strong leader of the post assassination Camelot myth - which Jackie and the media created.
I recall 1968 when RFK was killed and women were wailing "he was so good looking" . I began to understand my dad's plaint that women vote for the wrong reasons.
8 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
lakerman1 11/20/2020 9:19:22 AM (No. 611390)
Jackie gave birth to a premature baby in July, 1963,
the baby died shortly after being born.
Jackie recuperated from the trauma by going on an extended vacation, with Aristotle Onassis, on his yacht.
6 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
udanja99 11/20/2020 9:27:09 AM (No. 611399)
#2 reminded me of the magazine cover (Time, Newsweek or Life, can’t remember which) depicting Caroline Kennedy in her wedding dress and referring to it as America’s royal wedding.
Telegenic? Almost all of them had buck teeth. With all that ill gotten cash you’d think they could have found a decent orthodontist.
BTW, I use ad blockers and can’t access more than the first couple of paragraphs so my reply addresses only those.
4 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
udanja99 11/20/2020 9:30:05 AM (No. 611403)
Oh, just saw OP’s alternative address. Thanks! Will read now...
0 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
GO3 11/20/2020 10:38:23 AM (No. 611482)
Agree with others here. In the political commentary world, PJ is my hero. In addition to Parliament of Whores, check out All the Troubles in the World.
1 person likes this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Aud 11/20/2020 11:30:12 AM (No. 611530)
I think Kennedy got elected (by the skin of his teeth) because he was seen as a Catholic battling anti-Catholicism in the tradition of Al Smith, and so most Catholics voted for Kennedy. Likewise I think Obama was elected because blacks voted as bloc for him, and many other voters saw Obama’s candidacy as a chance to show the world that a black man could be elected president. Not much, or anything about either man fitted him for the job (good looks and a intriguing accent for Kennedy, a razor sharp crease of his suit trousers for Obama, and good ghost-writers for both).
3 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
jlw509 11/20/2020 4:50:34 PM (No. 611798)
As pitiless as it ought to be.
2 people like this.
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