Booray said:
nein51 said:
History is ridiculously kind to Kennedy but historians tend not to be. He was a terrible President but it would have been way out of bounds to write that post assassination. He was young, charismatic, good looking, very well spoken in an era where TV was still relatively new. It's really easy to see why he was so popular (sort of similar to Barack Obama, IMO). I just think that post mortem no one really had the nerve to question his presidency and, as such, it is remembered fondly for what it looked like rather than what it actually was.
There are 3 years left so it's too early to call but I dont see history being nearly so kind to Biden who, at this point, is about like Carter only far less likeable.
The other thing you are missing is that on the most consequential event of his administration-the Cuban Missile Crisis-he got a huge win.Plus he gets credit for the space program. Obviously he did not execute it, but he articulated the vision.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was created ....( much like this current Ukrainian nightmare ) .....by the Soviet leader having an extremely low opinion of the US president . And there was ZERO real 'triumph' achieved. as Kennedy agreed to pull our missiles out of Turkey in exchange for the Soviets removing their missiles out of Cuba. But THAT part of the deal was kept secret for years.
BTW ......Kennedy ( like Bill Clinton ) was a total sexaholic . Even to the point of sleeping with women the FBI warned him were possibly communist agents or mafia girlfriends . Had affairs with at least a dozen women.....including a member of his wife's own staff.
Worse, by the time Kennedy became president he was a full on drug addict. Taking several shots a day from various doctors for his back pain and Chrohn's disease . He simply could not function without narcotics .