Was JFK honestly a good President?

[DevotedDemocrat]

JFK is often listed among the Top 5 Best Presidents of all time, and there's a lot of nostalgia surrounding the man and he's almost a legendary figure in our history. While I feel he wasn't a HORRIBLE President, he wasn't a great one either, and far from one of the best.

He didn't do all that much even in life--His legislative programs were either watered down or defeated in Congress, which he didn't seem to know how to work with; His New Frontier was a relatively tame platform compared to the New Deal or Fair Deal.

His foreign policy is littered with embarrassing mistakes and indecisiveness. He's still the only President to bring us to the very brink of nuclear war due to being perceived as weak by our enemies. He just seems like he was in over his head with the job of the Presidency and the only thing which carried him was his looks, his personal and familial charm, his beautiful and elegant wife, his sense of style and his rapport with the media...But little more than that.

He didn't do anything utterly innovative or transformative, unlike say Washington or Lincoln. He didn't politically realign the country, unlike say FDR or a Nixon or a Reagan. He didn't transform the country politics as TR or LBJ did. He didn't even have any major failures so as to make him memorable as a failure, like Carter.  Johnson accomplished most of what Kennedy is remembered for. If he'd continued as he was going and hadn't been killed, I think he might've faded quickly into history as a popular but do nothing President--Like Ike.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

A decent president who is overly romanticized by the fact that he was assassinated.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

The title and the poll question are incongruous.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Yeah, there's nothing as annoying as the way JFK is now idolized as some kind of iconic President while his Presidency was largely uneventful.

[RogueBeaver]

A decent president who is overly romanticized by the fact that he was assassinated.

[TDAS04]

I voted yes, because he honestly was a good President.  Then I saw that you were asking that if he was as good as remembered; probably not.  His assassination just helped his legacy as a hero, and he was inspiring.

LBJ, however, was better than people remember him as.

[DevotedDemocrat]

If it wasn't for the way the media idolized him, uplifted him and touted his family or the fact that he was handsome, charming and stylish or that he had family who were powerful figures in politics, I believe Kennedy, on the merits of his Presidency itself, would've faded into obscurity in the way William McKinley has. Who really remembers McKinley's two years in office? JFK was a celebrity President--no more.

His biggest, most enduring legacy is an ongoing embargo with Cuba and an industry in which conspiratorial thrive.

[DevotedDemocrat]

I voted yes, because he honestly was a good President.  Then I saw that you were asking that if he was as good as remembered; probably not.  His assassination just helped his legacy as a hero, and he was inspiring.

LBJ, however, was better than people remember him as.

Everything Kennedy is remembered for--Civil Rights, The Moon Landing--was either spearheaded or actually done by LBJ. Kennedy, a man of priviledge, didn't seem to care about Civil Rights until millions were marching in Washington. His brother seemed to genuinely care, but he didn't. The Moon Project was suggested to him by Johnson. JFK himself didn't believe in it. And LBJ made it happen. It's unfortunate. LBJ suggested the idea, then spearheaded it as President, only to have Nixon preside over it. That's the tragedy of LBJ's Presidency...His accomplishments overshadowed by larger than life figures--JFK as this positive, larger than life figure, Nixon as the exact opposite.

[Dr. Cynic]

The only people who rank JFK in the top five Presidents are the ones who were very young and becoming first aware of politics when he was President and thus hold a romantic view of him.

I think he was fairly average, honestly.

[jpj1421]

A decent President most of the time, but he gets major points for his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

[dead0man]

Yeah, there's nothing as annoying as the way JFK is now idolized as some kind of iconic President while his Presidency was largely uneventful.

Indeed, it's almost as annoying as the idolization some lefties today have with "hey hey LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?".

[TNF]

A decent president who is overly romanticized by the fact that he was assassinated.

[Donerail]

Better than his successor.

[Oak Hills]

A decent president who is overly romanticized by the fact that he was assassinated.

[Lief 🗽]

Well he did prevent a nuclear war. So that's pretty good.

[Oakvale]

Everything Kennedy is remembered for--Civil Rights, The Moon Landing--was either spearheaded or actually done by LBJ.

Kennedy being dead at the time may have had an impact on this.

Anyway, as for the question, sure, but it's the hip new thing to denigrate Kennedy as a bad President, which is nonsense. He did prevent a third world war.

More to the point, I'll take Kennedy apologism over Johnson apologism any day.

[Dereich]

The only people who rank JFK in the top five Presidents are the ones who were very young and becoming first aware of politics when he was President and thus hold a romantic view of him.

I think he was fairly average, honestly.

This is an important point. The early boomers would just be getting to the age when they could care about politics when he was assassinated and they've shaped American culture and political thought since then.

[fezzyfestoon]

I think people are a bit too quick to discount the impact of intangible accomplishments.

[All Along The Watchtower]

He was above average, relative to other Presidents. He had his good aspects and bad aspects, like anybody else. He was not very sympathetic to the labor wing of the Democratic Party, or the emerging civil rights wing. But yeah, his actions did help prevent the end of the world (nuclear war), and while a formidable Cold Warrior in his own right, he certainly wasn't like the most brazen of the "hawks" (like Curtis LeMay, for example. )

I think the fact that he was killed less than three years into his term makes it difficult to ascertain his real legacy, especially in light of the "Camelot" myth.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

A decent president who is overly romanticized by the fact that he was assassinated.

Exactly.  I certainly sympathize with the fact that he was assassinated at such a young age, but he was nowhere near as good a president as people think he was.  He wasn't a terrible one, just very overrated.  Same goes for Clinton.

[DevotedDemocrat]

Everything Kennedy is remembered for--Civil Rights, The Moon Landing--was either spearheaded or actually done by LBJ.

Kennedy being dead at the time may have had an impact on this.

Anyway, as for the question, sure, but it's the hip new thing to denigrate Kennedy as a bad President, which is nonsense. He did prevent a third world war.

More to the point, I'll take Kennedy apologism over Johnson apologism any day.

Have to remember things only got to the point of probable nuclear war because Khrushchev thought, after Vienna and the Bay of Pigs, that Kennedy was a hardliner, albeit weak, who was in over his head. The situation was created due to Kennedy's own failings.

At least Johnson is to thank for the Civil Rights Acts (three huge ones in '64, '65 and '68, probably beyond what Kennedy would ever have done), the Moon Landing and the Great Society (way beyond Kennedy's New Frontier), all of which had probably as long lasting an impact for the positive as Vietnam did for the negative.

[DevotedDemocrat]

A decent president who is overly romanticized by the fact that he was assassinated.

Exactly.  I certainly sympathize with the fact that he was assassinated at such a young age, but he was nowhere near as good a president as people think he was.  He wasn't a terrible one, just very overrated.  Same goes for Clinton.

Clinton had/has that same charisma factor plus the fact that Clinton presided over a booming economy and a generally peaceful period in US history.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Yeah, there's nothing as annoying as the way JFK is now idolized as some kind of iconic President while his Presidency was largely uneventful.

Indeed, it's almost as annoying as the idolization some lefties today have with "hey hey LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?".

Except LBJ actually did many great things. Sure, he also made a terrible mistake, but at least you can't deny that he was in many ways a much more important figure than JFK.

[Redalgo]

I answered "no" in the poll. There are some policies of his I like. The Peace Corps was a great idea, as was a nuclear test ban treaty pitch. The New Frontier also seems to be more attractive than not, among a handful of other things.

Yet he seemed more concerned with political success than always taking a solid stand in favor of greater civil rights, let the FBI invade privacy in the name of anti-communism, and his foreign policy agenda was a mess. He got the States heavily aligned with Israel, mired in Vietnam, engaged in imperialist policies down in Latin America, made several HP’esque moves regarding Cuba, pursued friendly relations with undemocratic regimes for the sake of containing communism, and was never really passionate about the Space Race - seeing NASA mostly as a means for vying with the USSR for good PR attention. At least with LBJ the FF and HP qualities in politics were both extraordinary.

(Though to be fair I am not a big fan of President Johnson, either.)

That is aside from all the rumors about JFK involving recreational drugs and sleeping around - to the affect of making even Bill Clinton’s personal transgressions seem minor in comparison. I don't hold that against him much, mind you, but don't think history would have remembered this figure anywhere nearly so fondly had he not been assassinated.

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

Yes.

But only the uninformed view him as top 5 material. His average ranking is #11.