50 Years Ago Today...

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

Best president of the last 50 years.

[Franzl]

Best president of the last 50 years.

I don't understand the JFK love. I mean, I don't particularly dislike him...but what exactly did he do?

[Mr. Taft Republican]

Best president of the last 50 years.

I don't understand the JFK love. I mean, I don't particularly dislike him...but what exactly did he do?

From his two years in office? Fail in the Bay of Pigs, ruin our relationship, and attempt to starve, a small country, call himself a donut and begin the worst war for America since WWII. Yeah, great guy.

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

Best president of the last 50 years.

I don't understand the JFK love. I mean, I don't particularly dislike him...but what exactly did he do?

From his two years in office? Fail in the Bay of Pigs, ruin our relationship, and attempt to starve, a small country, call himself a donut and begin the worst war for America since WWII. Yeah, great guy.

That war can trace its roots back to Truman or Eisenhower, and JFK's best moment was how he handeled the Cuban Missle Crisis, which was a result of the Bay of Pigs incident.

[Mr. Taft Republican]

Best president of the last 50 years.

I don't understand the JFK love. I mean, I don't particularly dislike him...but what exactly did he do?

From his two years in office? Fail in the Bay of Pigs, ruin our relationship, and attempt to starve, a small country, call himself a donut and begin the worst war for America since WWII. Yeah, great guy.

That war can trace its roots back to Truman or Eisenhower, and JFK's best moment was how he handeled the Cuban Missle Crisis, which was a result of the Bay of Pigs incident.

Fair enough, though at that time they were looking at it as secondary to Laos(or Cambodia, one of them). If the CMC was his finest moment that it really was an overrated presidency, we faced the brink of nuclear war, and I blame him for initiating the damn Bay of Pigs in the first place! What was the point? How was it our problem??

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

Some folks like to say that the BOP was a leftover plan from Ike that Kennedy was forced to act upon, but I don't know enough about that theory. Besides, anti-communist fever was still around.

[tpfkaw]

Ugh.  An embarrassment to my state.

Excuse me for not having particular respect for risking all of human civilization on making oneself look like a good negotiator.  Luckily Khrushchev was not also an insane sociopath, or I wouldn't be typing this today.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Some folks like to say that the BOP was a leftover plan from Ike that Kennedy was forced to act upon, but I don't know enough about that theory. Besides, anti-communist fever was still around.

The BoP was an Eisenhower operation that Kennedy believed the CIA had misled him into undertaking, which is why he removed the air support for the invasion.

How was the CMC Kennedy's fault? He was the one who stopped the military invasion... which would have led to a retaliatory response...

I didn't expect you to be a fan... but I'd love to hear this...

[Mr. Taft Republican]

Some folks like to say that the BOP was a leftover plan from Ike that Kennedy was forced to act upon, but I don't know enough about that theory. Besides, anti-communist fever was still around.

The BoP was an Eisenhower operation that Kennedy believed the CIA had misled him into undertaking, which is why he removed the air support for the invasion.

How was the CMC Kennedy's fault? He was the one who stopped the military invasion... which would have led to a retaliatory response...

I didn't expect you to be a fan... but I'd love to hear this...

We can blame Rusk or McNamara for Vietnam, but Kennedy and Johnson still raised troop levels exponentially. Same with BoP, they had a choice to withdraw support and not go through with it.

As for CMC, it was a reaction to the Invasion(abbreviations are getting somewhat old), it led Castro into Kruschev's arms, and we then faced mutually assured destruction. So yeah, it was years in the making, but at any point Kennedy could have not bowed to peer pressure.

Luckily Khrushchev was not also an insane sociopath, or I wouldn't be typing this today.

That, comrade, may be a slight mischaracterization .

[Keystone Phil]

Best president of the last 50 years.

I don't understand the JFK love. I mean, I don't particularly dislike him...but what exactly did he do?

You have redeemed yourself in my eyes (not that you care).     Not only is this totally non-Moderate Hero, you're speaking the truth about one of the most overrated political figures in American history.

All of the "JFK would be a Republican today!" talk makes me cringe.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Best president of the last 50 years.

I don't understand the JFK love. I mean, I don't particularly dislike him...but what exactly did he do?

Agreed on that. He had maybe a nice program but never had the occasion to implement it.

All of the "JFK would be a Republican today!" talk makes me cringe.

Someone really claimed that ? LOL...

[Franzl]

You have redeemed yourself in my eyes (not that you care).     Not only is this totally non-Moderate Hero, you're speaking the truth about one of the most overrated political figures in American history.

All of the "JFK would be a Republican today!" talk makes me cringe.

You should ask a random sample of Germans who the best U.S. President ever was...I fear you'd get 80% Kennedy or so.

[Middle-aged Europe]

You have redeemed yourself in my eyes (not that you care).     Not only is this totally non-Moderate Hero, you're speaking the truth about one of the most overrated political figures in American history.

All of the "JFK would be a Republican today!" talk makes me cringe.

You should ask a random sample of Germans who the best U.S. President ever was...I fear you'd get 80% Kennedy or so.

Followed by Clinton, and then probably Obama.

[Franzl]

You might even find Obama in front of Clinton. Wouldn't surprise me.

[afleitch]

You have redeemed yourself in my eyes (not that you care).     Not only is this totally non-Moderate Hero, you're speaking the truth about one of the most overrated political figures in American history.

All of the "JFK would be a Republican today!" talk makes me cringe.

You should ask a random sample of Germans who the best U.S. President ever was...I fear you'd get 80% Kennedy or so.

To be fair if you asked Americans who their favourite German Chancellor was...would you even get an answer? So what if Germans pick Kennedy. Why not? Kennedy wasn't in office long enough to f-ck it up. That's why he scores so highly. Besides, in the European sphere the Cuban Missile Crisis was a pretty big deal. It would be dishonest for most people to pick a President they know nothing about, which these days pretty much excludes everyone before Kennedy. Who else are they going to pick - Gerry Ford?

[Insula Dei]

You have redeemed yourself in my eyes (not that you care).     Not only is this totally non-Moderate Hero, you're speaking the truth about one of the most overrated political figures in American history.

All of the "JFK would be a Republican today!" talk makes me cringe.

You should ask a random sample of Germans who the best U.S. President ever was...I fear you'd get 80% Kennedy or so.

To be fair if you asked Americans who their favourite German Chancellor was...would you even get an answer? So what if Germans pick Kennedy. Why not? Kennedy wasn't in office long enough to f-ck it up. That's why he scores so highly. Besides, in the European sphere the Cuban Missile Crisis was a pretty big deal. It would be dishonest for most people to pick a President they know nothing about, which these days pretty much excludes everyone before Kennedy. Who else are they going to pick - Gerry Ford?

Yeah, you can hardly blame Europeans for thinking that 'saving the world' ranks higher than 'never heard of that guy' and 'wasn't he the guy with the Teddy Bear'.

Also, everyone seems to forget that Lincoln would probably rank above Clinton.

[Franzl]

To be fair if you asked Americans who their favourite German Chancellor was...would you even get an answer? So what if Germans pick Kennedy. Why not? Kennedy wasn't in office long enough to f-ck it up. That's why he scores so highly. Besides, in the European sphere the Cuban Missile Crisis was a pretty big deal. It would be dishonest for most people to pick a President they know nothing about, which these days pretty much excludes everyone before Kennedy. Who else are they going to pick - Gerry Ford?

True, but I'm reasonably sure that his popularity has more to do with his death and the events surrounding it. (As stated in the other thread, Germans love conspiracies)

I get the feeling Kennedy wouldn't be viewed much differently than any other Preisdent had he left office under normal circumstances.

[Middle-aged Europe]

To be fair if you asked Americans who their favourite German Chancellor was...would you even get an answer? So what if Germans pick Kennedy. Why not? Kennedy wasn't in office long enough to f-ck it up. That's why he scores so highly. Besides, in the European sphere the Cuban Missile Crisis was a pretty big deal. It would be dishonest for most people to pick a President they know nothing about, which these days pretty much excludes everyone before Kennedy. Who else are they going to pick - Gerry Ford?

True, but I'm reasonably sure that his popularity has more to do with his death and the events surrounding it. (As stated in the other thread, Germans love conspiracies)

I get the feeling Kennedy wouldn't be viewed much differently than any other Preisdent had he left office under normal circumstances.

You're forgetting about Ich bin ein Berliner.

[Franzl]

To be fair if you asked Americans who their favourite German Chancellor was...would you even get an answer? So what if Germans pick Kennedy. Why not? Kennedy wasn't in office long enough to f-ck it up. That's why he scores so highly. Besides, in the European sphere the Cuban Missile Crisis was a pretty big deal. It would be dishonest for most people to pick a President they know nothing about, which these days pretty much excludes everyone before Kennedy. Who else are they going to pick - Gerry Ford?

True, but I'm reasonably sure that his popularity has more to do with his death and the events surrounding it. (As stated in the other thread, Germans love conspiracies)

I get the feeling Kennedy wouldn't be viewed much differently than any other Preisdent had he left office under normal circumstances.

You're forgetting about Ich bin ein Berliner.

Yeah, that's true.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Best president of the last 50 years.

I don't understand the JFK love. I mean, I don't particularly dislike him...but what exactly did he do?

Had sex with a large number of women?