[Reily]

LBJ was one of the most powerful men in DC as Senate majority leader. He, Sam Rayburn\John McCormick in the House dominated legislation. JFK was the nobody! He was mediocre 1 term senator. (Not unlike Zero of Illinois!) His main accomplishment was looking good & sounding good on the new medium called TV. His family presented fabulously on that medium too. Everybody was determined to hustle off the national stage those tired old WWII veterans and bring on the Age of Rock-N-Roll! Let’s all sing Camelot along with Richard Harris. The marriage of modern media with glitzy politics! It’s a beautiful thing!

[Verginius Rufus]

JFK was in his second term as Senator in 1960, having previously been a Congressman. His father was well known and had had ambitions of being the nominee in 1940 if FDR had not run for a third term. JFK made an unsuccessful attempt to be the VP nominee in 1956 when Adlai Stevenson let the convention decide.

1960 was the first election when the leading candidates were WWII veterans (of course Ike had an important role in WWII but he was of the WWI generation, born in 1890). Nixon and LBJ were also WWII veterans.

[ansel12]

“”””” Everybody was determined to hustle off the national stage those tired old WWII veterans and bring on the Age of Rock-N-Roll! “””””

JFK was the most celebrated WWII veteran of that election, the other 3 WWII veterans were over shadowed by his service, (by the media, not by real life).