An earlier classic. - tom
Mudd: “Why do you want to be president?”
Kennedy: “Well, I’m — were I to — to make the announcement and — to run, the reasons that I would run is because I have a great belief in this country, that it is — has more natural resources than any nation in the world, has the greatest educated population in the world, the greatest capacity for innovation in the world, and the greatest political system in the world. And yet, I see at the current time that most of the industrial nations of the world are exceeding us in terms of productivity, are doing better than us in terms of meeting the problems of inflation, that they`re dealing with their problems of energy and their problems of unemployment....
And the energies and the resourcefulness of this nation, I think, should be focused on these problems in a way that brings a sense of restoration in this country by its people to — in dealing with the problems that we face — primarily the issues on the economy, the problems of inflation, and the problems of energy. And I would basically feel that — that it`s imperative for this country to either move forward, that it can`t stand still, or otherwise it moves back.”