I did not then (during his presidency) nor do I now think JFK was a good president. But I believe he truly and deeply loved the United States, and wanted her to be the best it could be, and the strongest it could be. He was always pretty candid, and often self-deprecating, and I admire him for that. Perhaps if his presidency had not been cut short he would have eventually been a good president. We’ll never know. But, I do know this: He was the second-best Democrat president of my lifetime (the best being Harry Truman), but that isn’t saying much.
The ironic thing is that he has been elevated by the Democrats as almost some sort of deity, yet JFK would not be welcome in today’s Democrat Party, as he was opposed to most of what the modern Democrat Party strongly supports.
Pity that his younger brothers — especially his youngest -— did not have his sense of duty to Country. He was a flawed man, as all men are flawed; but I think he’d be embarrassed and uncomfortable at how his party has so beatified him.
The worshipers at the JFK Shrine will never admit he too had feet of clay. The 19 year old girl that traveled as a bed warmer, the Bay of Pigs, the South East Asia adventure that took many of my friends and of course Queen Jackie’s marriage to the millionaire Greek with the monkey testicle transplant. His murder was a tragic event for the USA but I have always maintained he would have been a one term wonder and we would have lost fewer men in that quagmire.