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The hard-to-read chapter title above refers to one of the best campaign songs of all time. Frank Sinatra sang this song, to the tune of High Hopes, for John F. Kennedys 1960 campaign. It was with such hopes and nostalgia that I visited the Kennedy Presidential Library for the second time. Media theorist Marshall McLuhan said something to the effect that we used to travel to see the unusual, but in the modern age of TV and film we travel to see the familiar. By the time you get to see the pyramids or Eiffel Tower in person, youve already seen their pictures a hundred times. I had this feeling of familiarity at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston. There are so many documentaries, news stories and books on the Kennedys that I felt Id seen it all many times before. The exhibits start with the vigorous Kennedy, playing touch football, tennis and myriad other sports, despite serious illnesses. One short film chronicles the future presidents life up to the 1960 convention, and another documents the Cuban missile crisis. Excerpts from Kennedys news conferences remind viewers of his sharp wit, perhaps only equaled by Ronald Reagan. The glamor shots of Jackie Kennedy and the President at White House dinners have only been matched by Nancy and Ronald Reagan. Television figured prominently in Kennedys career. In fact, still photographs and film played a role before TV. Joseph P. Kennedy hired the best photographers and cinematographers he could to document family time, such as the group shots and sports at Hyannisport. Visitors see clips from the 1956 Democratic convention in which Kennedy nominated Adlai Stevenson and narrowly missed becoming the vice-presidential candidate. Long clips from the 1960 KennedyNixon TV debates show that Nixon wasnt quite as sinister as future commentators said, and Kennedy looked nervous at times. In fact, the irony is that commentators claim Kennedy crushed Nixon in the debate and tipped the election in his favor. Yet it was the closest election to that date in US history. The debate couldnt have been that much of a slam-dunk.
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Ive seen the debates in full, at the Museum of Broadcasting in New York. But what I hadnt seen was long clips from the actual election returns, delivered by Walter Cronkite. When I poked my head into the mock-TV studio, the popular vote was exactly 50/50. Several states see-sawed back and forth between the two candidates, and so did the Electoral College votes each state could award. In a dramatic moment Walter Cronkite says that one of his field reporters is standing by where an IBM computer is analyzing returns. The reporter, holding broad and long sheets of computer paper, pops up and speaks with enthusiasm and confidence about the Herculean job the new technology will tackle. A short time later, Cronkite throws to the reporter again, and he announces with great drama that the IBM computer is predicting that Richard Nixon will be the next president of the United States. But like Deweys win over Truman, it was short-lived, and in the end Kennedy was president. Apparently when Nixon and the senator met shortly after, the comment that passed between them was something to the effect, I guess well never know who really won. I get a kick out of the commentary about whether a president has a mandate after a close election or especially after becoming an unelected president, as with Truman, Johnson, Ford and others. All presidents, however they get into office, are also commanders-in-chief, in charge of the armed forces. They draft and veto legislation, and Truman even used the atomic bomb. They can make hundreds of appointments, including to the Supreme Court, the cabinet and the top layer of the civil service. The president also wields another big stickthe bully pulpit, just to mix the two famous metaphors from Teddy Roosevelt. Few have wielded the persuasive power of the presidency better than Kennedy. First, there was the physical presence. Few historical figures travel well through time and space. But if John F. Kennedy were to walk into a room today and be introduced as the prime minister of Great Britain, the governor of Utah or the mayor of Sydney, Australia, he would fit in. Thats not true with Eisenhower, Johnson or most other politicians. Physical presence also means being at ease in your own skin. Kennedys contemporaries, such as those on the stage with him at the Democratic National Convention in 1960, were just not so at ease. Kennedy made Stevenson, Johnson, Humphrey and most others look a little stiff and awkward. Physical presence also means using your whole body in a speech. Kennedy regularly punctuated the air with his forefinger, fixed his eyes

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on one spot in the audience, leaned forward as he spoke and used a clear, loud voice with articulate diction. Ironically, Kennedy wasnt healthy or vigorous. He often had trouble picking up his own children. He spent many months bed-ridden. But Kennedy was vigorous mentally. He may have relied on his writers and researchers a lot, but he had the smarts to use the best talent available. Consider these quotes: I look forward to a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind. The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic. Kennedys speeches are peppered with humor, tight epigrams, juxtaposition, insightful observations and advocacy for peace and intellectual investigation that would not make it through a focus group for a modern politician. Notwithstanding Marshall McLuhan, I learned a little at the Kennedy Library. I didnt realize that hed taken a half-year off from his Harvard studies to work in the US embassy in Paris and had traveled to Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in 1939. Kennedy appears to have been an intellectually curious person who elevated the public discourse. Politically he was a bit of an anomalyhawkish on the arms race, Laos, Viet Nam and his tax cut, slow on civil rights, yet he left Johnson with a mandate to pass the most progressive legislation America had ever seen. Perhaps its these contradictions and complexity that continue to fascinate, as much as the tragic ending.

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