US Presidents

[Falco Underhill]

1. Are you aware of any Presidential candidates in the past who were:
-gifted with administrative aptitude
-respectful of staff working under him/her
-respectful of others including political opponents
-able to bring people together in a measure of unity and peace in the nation, including a large percentage of those from other parties
-known for being honest and speaking the truth

Ronald Reagan, the Great Communicator.

Always ready to disarm his most vehement opponents with a witty sense of humor.

[steve-in-kville]

Kennedy.

JFK was an utter scandal. His Catholicism. His+Jackie’s youth. Her clothes!
His assassination did a lot of uniting. Many believed Bobby K was the better man, and was set to eclipse his brother.
i was young. this is my sense of the adult world around me at the time. his affairs were unknown to me until years later.

Keep in mind that the father was behind the entire thing... his connections is what got JFK elected.

[RZehr]

1. Are you aware of any Presidential candidates in the past who were:
-gifted with administrative aptitude
-respectful of staff working under him/her
-respectful of others including political opponents
-able to bring people together in a measure of unity and peace in the nation, including a large percentage of those from other parties
-known for being honest and speaking the truth

2. Why do you think US citizens have not elected such a candidate so far?

3. Do you know of any countries who have elected such a person to their highest political office?

Vladimir Putin, except for the third one.

[temporal1]

Kennedy.

JFK was an utter scandal. His Catholicism. His+Jackie’s youth. Her clothes!
His assassination did a lot of uniting. Many believed Bobby K was the better man, and was set to eclipse his brother.
i was young. this is my sense of the adult world around me at the time. his affairs were unknown to me until years later.

Keep in mind that the father was behind the entire thing... his connections is what got JFK elected.

This is how i understand it now. His father was AMBITIOUS. My parents probably had some grasp of it.
What impressed me, as a new teen, was awareness that what had been adult controversy, upon his death, immediately morphed into unison grief over “our President has been shot+killed.” Controversies were fairly set aside. Quickly!

i suppose, the Kennedy family is the “Most Romantic” political family. By their nature+makeup, but also because JFK was at ease with still-new b+w television as a communication tool.

You know, in early days, “news” reporting was NOT expected to be profitable. News reporting was delegated to PSA type airing a couple of times daily. In 30 minutes, time was divided, news, sports, weather, with entertaining commercials throughout!
That meant very little reporting time. PSA time would be added for occasional news from the White House, etc.
People often complained about their regular shows being interrupted!

Eventually, CBS’ 60 Minutes turned news into entertainment. etc. etc.

[Ken]

1. Are you aware of any Presidential candidates in the past who were:
-gifted with administrative aptitude
-respectful of staff working under him/her
-respectful of others including political opponents
-able to bring people together in a measure of unity and peace in the nation, including a large percentage of those from other parties
-known for being honest and speaking the truth

2. Why do you think US citizens have not elected such a candidate so far?

3. Do you know of any countries who have elected such a person to their highest political office?

Vladimir Putin, except for the third one.

I’m not sure that Vladimir Putin meets any of those criteria other than administrative aptitude by virtue of being a consummate bureaucratic knife-fighter from his long experience in the KGB.

He certainly isn’t respectful of political opponents. He jails and assassinates them.
He certainly hasn’t brought peace and unity to the nation, having instigated wars and crises on nearly every border from Georgia to Belarus.
He certainly isn’t respectful of other political parties. He outlaws them.
He certainly isn’t known for honestly and speaking the truth.

[Ken]

Kennedy.

JFK was an utter scandal. His Catholicism. His+Jackie’s youth. Her clothes!
His assassination did a lot of uniting. Many believed Bobby K was the better man, and was set to eclipse his brother.
i was young. this is my sense of the adult world around me at the time. his affairs were unknown to me until years later.

Keep in mind that the father was behind the entire thing... his connections is what got JFK elected.

I had always thought that the Kennedy fortune was derived from illicit Prohibition-era bootlegging, and the point of pushing JFK into politics was to launder the Kennedy family’s illicit new money into establishment old money. Which of course it did.

But now that I google up the topic it appears that historians don’t really support that notion anymore. That there isn’t evidence that Joe Kennedy did anything illegal to build the Kennedy family fortune, he was just really good at business.

Personally I liked the old story better. There is nothing more American than coming from somewhat unsavory roots and making good.

[temporal1]

google. the narrative google chooses. what pops up is no mistake.
people so want the fantasy of balanced facts.

i’m no different. i want it. i see it’s not going to be at my immediate fingertips.

when i google now, my first question is, “what are they pushing now?’ then, “what are they leaving out?”

[Only an Anz]

Andrew Jackson

Keep in mind the most admired US Presidents (Washington, Lincoln) were also warmongers.

Jackson literally stole someone else's wife.

[mike]

Andrew Jackson

Keep in mind the most admired US Presidents (Washington, Lincoln) were also warmongers.

Jackson literally stole someone else's wife.

Isn't that, like, one of the qualifications to be president these days?

[Only an Anz]

Andrew Jackson

Keep in mind the most admired US Presidents (Washington, Lincoln) were also warmongers.

Jackson literally stole someone else's wife.

Isn't that, like, one of the qualifications to be president these days?

Hah! You may be right...does seem an odd choice in a forum that (I presume) is not on board with divorce & remarriage.