WORSHIPPING JFK

Yahoo News ^ | Sat Nov 22, 8:01 PM ET | Wm F Buckley

[eddie willers]

That quality is charisma.

Agreed....Kennedy had charm and great wit.

Plus....you've got to hand it to a guy who says to a gathering of Nobel Prize winners at the White House,

"This is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

[Lijahsbubbe]

I don't even see it as JFK worship.

I see it as many of us, reaching back, trying to inhale a piece of that time that seemed the end of a season in our country and our lives.

If you were a baby boomer, or in adulthood, you experienced the assassination of three important leaders, the civil rights movement and riots, from leave it to Beaver to Laugh-In, to a televised war, from Dean Martin to Jimi Hendrix, the sexual revolution and women's rights.

I know people are tired of hearing about it, but everything changed dramatically in our country that decade. It was an incredible time in history, and the assassination of JFK was the beginning to many.

[RLK]

That quality is charisma.

------------------------

It's been called that. Supermodel Cindy Wazzername has it. She gets $9,000,000 per year to have her photograph on the cover of magazines. People go ape over it. However it's more a characteristic of the people viewing the photographs rater than substance on her part. It's not a refendum on her IQ.

[Jeff Chandler]

According to a multilingual friend of mine who is an expert in German, he did indeed say it incorrectly, although it didn't matter to the Germans because they appreciated the effort.

[Jeff Chandler]

"I am a Berliner"

Jimmy Carter made a similar statement while visiting the city of Hamburg.

[Vision Thing]

He did set us on our trek to the stars...

JFK did not do this for any grand noble purpose. He did it mainly for pure political purposes: To beat the Soviets into space.

[Vision Thing]

I know people are tired of hearing about it, but everything changed dramatically in our country that decade. It was an incredible time in history, and the assassination of JFK was the beginning to many.

Speaking as a member of Generation X, I view the sixties as a time when this great nation had a bad case of the runs.

[Vision Thing]

I think the thing that was shocking in the revelations by Mr. Dallek and the review of the medical records that was disclosed - is the arrogance and the ambition - either JFK's or his father's - take your pick.

Arrogance and ambition: The quintessential attributes of the liberal democrat elite.

It's a good thing the Founding Fathers insisted on those checks and balances, or else this power-hungry kennedy family would be running roughshold over us all.

[what's up]

He looked actually like a ugly, scrawny kid until his very last years when he finally put some meat on his bones...probably because he couldn't exercise due to his addisons.

[Ruth A.]

I disagree. Charisma may be had by those who are not extrememly attractive. Recently, I heard Roddy McDowel explain seeing Johnny Cash turn on the charisma for a home video. Additionally, Barbara Mandrell said that Johnny Cash was one of two people that she could palpably feel when they entered a building. That is charisma. Well, I think Johnny Cash was an attractive man I cannot in all honesty say he was extremely handsome or had a gifted musical quality of voice. Despite that, he had an rarely matched talent.

[onyx]

And I must say "ditto" to you. don't find anything attractive about the Kennedys either, including JFK. Now, Junior was another story. :)

Take away the money, and they're just horse-faces with not much going for them.

[Ruth A.]

That is a wonderfully accurate quote. Thank you!

[onyx]

It's always a shame to watch a respected elder lose it.

Yes, it is. Sad, and it happens all too often. Barry Goldwater comes to mind.

[Rainmist]

JFK was attractive, but handsome and beautiful were words I used to describe his son John. I sure do miss that face.

[Allan]

I can remember very clearly the Nixon-Kennedy race and Kennedy's election.

I was very unenthusiastic about the outcome.

I felt Kennedy was pompous, shallow and dull.

But maybe I am abnormal.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Thank you for alerting me to Mr. Buckley's column. Mr. Buckley knows about telegenic. See the following, please. And thanks to the poster for posting this.

Here in Mr. Buckley's article is the way it really was. Legacy? What legacy? Cover your eyes and ears, Kennedy dupes! Incoming truth! Take cover!

Had there been no television Nixon would have won -- actually, he did win. So let me rephrase that. Nixon would have collected enough votes that the mob's Chicago would not have mattered. "Richard Nixon winning?!" some ask shocked. He won 570 to 17 electoral votes in 1972.

Kennedy was the first television president. He was telegenic. To wit, telegenic: "Having a physical appearance and exhibiting personal qualities that are deemed highly appealing to television viewers: 'Do we insist on a telegenic President?' (William F. Buckley, Jr.)" From an online dictionary.

It was known at the time. In fact, those who heard the debates on radio knew Nixon cleaned Kennedy's clock. But Kennedy "won" the TV debates against Nixon, his perspiration and his awkward moves.

So many of our problems began in Vienna in 1961 as a result of the disgraceful performance of the telegenic president's face-to-face with Khrushchev. NYT editor Scotty Reston was the first to know, besides Kennedy, yet he kept quiet for five years, I believe. I think it's fair to ask, Did Kennedy's addictions affect his duties?

Though it was kind of cute of Kennedy when he told Berliners, in German, that he was a doughnut.

[Bullish]

Buckleys' command of language is simply amazing. Always has been a great read.

Now there's a new kid on the block. His name is Mark Steyn and he's as wordy and witty as Buckley in his prime. Maybe even better, IMHO.

[Savage Beast]

I'm sure it's just me--or more precisely my Y-chromosomes--but I didn't feel the magic of son John either. He was handsome, yes.

The biggest problem I have with the father and the son is that, because I never felt the magic and always considered both to be average people, the worship and adulation were annoying. If I had known them personally, I probably would have liked them. In fact, both seemed like nice, good, likeable people, and John Kennedy was not a bad president. However the adulation and worship exaggerated their positive qualities to the point of the ridiculous, and it became very irritating.

More importantly, it revealed a highly ridiculous quality about the adulators--a propensity for distorted perception that would prove dangerous for the entire United States, since the Kennedy magic, i.e. distorted perception, affected millions of Americans and this tendency to distort reality would cause millions of Americans to loose sight of some extremely important realities and thus make the world a much more dangerous place.

The Kennedy/Camelot "myth" was an early sign of a delusional system that would develop into something very dangerous.

Many people could see the danger even during the Kennedy administration, and their warnings fell on many deaf ears, ears that were deafened by the adulators' shouts of hosannahs.

The delusional system grew until the Kennedy "myth" had become only a small part of it, and it developed into the "Liberal" side of today's "culture war", something that probably would horrify President Kennedy if he suddenly returned to the world today.

[Savage Beast]

What disturbed me about the Kennedy adulation was the distracting effect that his telegenicity had on the American people, that millions of Americans placed great importance on such an irrelevant quality as appearances while consequently ignoring such fundamentally important qualities as substance and results of actions, and that his telegenicity was used, malevolently or misguidedly, to manipulate the public.

It did no good to shout warnings. The adulators were drunk with fantasies and had no desire to be reminded of reality.

They're still drunk with the same delusion, and, if they had their way, the United States would essentially be piloted by a bunch of drunk drivers.

This is the Kennedy legacy, and this is why the Kennedy/Camelot "myth"--or more precisely fiction--is abhorrant.

It's not that Kennedy was an unlikeable man or a bad president.

It's the delusion that is his legacy.

[liberallarry]

Steyn's great too.

Unfortunately, they too, like us, have their good and bad days. When they're good, they're great. When they're bad...well.

So I can never abandon my critical faculties, never take them as gospel. Work, work, work...it never stops.