[CARTOON] 50 Years Later

Via: California Political Review

The Kennedy Assassination: A Guide to Must-Reads About November 22, 1963

The assassination of John F Kennedy was a cataclysmic event the scope of which almost defies human comprehension. As the collection of links below shows, in drastically altering the course of American history it touched nearly every life in the nation, from Polish tailors on the Lower East Side to Fort Worth art vendors to the strangers recruited to serve as pallbearers for Lee Harvey Oswald.

As a result, it has promoted ordinary objects into historical significance, turning hotel paintings and doctors’ wristwatches into witnesses to history, and it has even made itself felt in absences, in the places Kennedy should have gone, the speeches he would have made, the people he could have addressed.

Here is a panaroma of the days in the United States before, during, and after the assassination.

JFK’s America (Andrew Kohut, PEW Research)

PEW looks at Kennedy’s standing in 1963, finding an optimistic internationalist populace giving him a 70% approval rate early in the year. This approval rating slipped to 59% after his civil rights speech in June, which much of the erosion happening in the south. A majority thought race was the preeminent challenge facing the country, and were not assuaged by the March on Washington, with which Kennedy had ambiguous relationship.

The Day Before JFK Was Assassinated (Timothy Noah, MSNBC)

Noah recreates the world of November 21, 1963, when Mary McCarthy’s The Group was a national bestseller, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World was in theaters, Ronald Reagan was still an actor (and only recently a Republican), England was just reporting, condescendingly, about this “Beatles” band, and a 17-year-old Diane Sawyer had recently been crowned Junior Miss. Most ominously, the best-selling non-fiction book of the week? JFK: The Man and the Myth, a takedown of the president.

In Austin, The “Welcome, JFK!” Banquet That Never Happened (Rebecca Onion, Slate)

“I’m extremely proud to see so many Texas Democrats,” the President was supposed to say to a banquet crowd in Austin, TX that evening. “From what people are trying to say, you’d think there weren’t this many Democrats left in the whole state!” Kennedy’s prepared remarks were also peppered with local color, courtesy Governor John Connally, about Darrell K. Royal and the UT Longhorns.

Speaking of Connally, here’s a profile of his wife, Nellie, from Texas Monthly.

Here’s The Artwork That JFK Saw The Night Before He Died (Christina Sterbenz, Business Insider)

The Dallas Museum has collected all the pieces of local Fort Worth pieces picked specifically for JFK’s hotel room the night before the shooting—which Fort Worth saw as a coup over its prominent neighboring polis.

Lyndon Johnson Was Scheduled To Visit My Austin Shul the Day After Kennedy Died (Cathy Schechter, Tablet)

The Vice President was on his home turf on the trip, and was supposed to visit a synagogue in his former congressional district. LBJ ended up keeping his promise, arriving a month later—as President.

The Last Beautiful Picture Of JFK And Jackie (David Luban, Business Insider)

The assassination of John F Kennedy was a cataclysmic event the scope of which almost defies human comprehension. As the collection of links below shows, in drastically altering the course of American history it touched nearly every life in the nation, from Polish tailors on the Lower East Side to Fort Worth art vendors to the strangers recruited to serve as pallbearers for Lee Harvey Oswald.

As a result, it has promoted ordinary objects into historical significance, turning hotel paintings and doctors’ wristwatches into witnesses to history, and it has even made itself felt in absences, in the places Kennedy should have gone, the speeches he would have made, the people he could have addressed.

Here is a panaroma of the days in the United States before, during, and after the assassination.

JFK’s America (Andrew Kohut, PEW Research)

PEW looks at Kennedy’s standing in 1963, finding an optimistic internationalist populace giving him a 70% approval rate early in the year. This approval rating slipped to 59% after his civil rights speech in June, which much of the erosion happening in the south. A majority thought race was the preeminent challenge facing the country, and were not assuaged by the March on Washington, with which Kennedy had ambiguous relationship.

The Day Before JFK Was Assassinated (Timothy Noah, MSNBC)

Noah recreates the world of November 21, 1963, when Mary McCarthy’s The Group was a national bestseller, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World was in theaters, Ronald Reagan was still an actor (and only recently a Republican), England was just reporting, condescendingly, about this “Beatles” band, and a 17-year-old Diane Sawyer had recently been crowned Junior Miss. Most ominously, the best-selling non-fiction book of the week? JFK: The Man and the Myth, a takedown of the president.

In Austin, The “Welcome, JFK!” Banquet That Never Happened (Rebecca Onion, Slate)

“I’m extremely proud to see so many Texas Democrats,” the President was supposed to say to a banquet crowd in Austin, TX that evening. “From what people are trying to say, you’d think there weren’t this many Democrats left in the whole state!” Kennedy’s prepared remarks were also peppered with local color, courtesy Governor John Connally, about Darrell K. Royal and the UT Longhorns.

Speaking of Connally, here’s a profile of his wife, Nellie, from Texas Monthly.

Here’s The Artwork That JFK Saw The Night Before He Died (Christina Sterbenz, Business Insider)

The Dallas Museum has collected all the pieces of local Fort Worth pieces picked specifically for JFK’s hotel room the night before the shooting—which Fort Worth saw as a coup over its prominent neighboring polis.

Lyndon Johnson Was Scheduled To Visit My Austin Shul the Day After Kennedy Died (Cathy Schechter, Tablet)

The Vice President was on his home turf on the trip, and was supposed to visit a synagogue in his former congressional district. LBJ ended up keeping his promise, arriving a month later—as President.

The Last Beautiful Picture Of JFK And Jackie (David Luban, Business Insider)

The assassination of John F Kennedy was a cataclysmic event the scope of which almost defies human comprehension. As the collection of links below shows, in drastically altering the course of American history it touched nearly every life in the nation, from Polish tailors on the Lower East Side to Fort Worth art vendors to the strangers recruited to serve as pallbearers for Lee Harvey Oswald.

As a result, it has promoted ordinary objects into historical significance, turning hotel paintings and doctors’ wristwatches into witnesses to history, and it has even made itself felt in absences, in the places Kennedy should have gone, the speeches he would have made, the people he could have addressed.

Here is a panaroma of the days in the United States before, during, and after the assassination.

JFK’s America (Andrew Kohut, PEW Research)

PEW looks at Kennedy’s standing in 1963, finding an optimistic internationalist populace giving him a 70% approval rate early in the year. This approval rating slipped to 59% after his civil rights speech in June, which much of the erosion happening in the south. A majority thought race was the preeminent challenge facing the country, and were not assuaged by the March on Washington, with which Kennedy had ambiguous relationship.

The Day Before JFK Was Assassinated (Timothy Noah, MSNBC)

Noah recreates the world of November 21, 1963, when Mary McCarthy’s The Group was a national bestseller, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World was in theaters, Ronald Reagan was still an actor (and only recently a Republican), England was just reporting, condescendingly, about this “Beatles” band, and a 17-year-old Diane Sawyer had recently been crowned Junior Miss. Most ominously, the best-selling non-fiction book of the week? JFK: The Man and the Myth, a takedown of the president.

In Austin, The “Welcome, JFK!” Banquet That Never Happened (Rebecca Onion, Slate)

“I’m extremely proud to see so many Texas Democrats,” the President was supposed to say to a banquet crowd in Austin, TX that evening. “From what people are trying to say, you’d think there weren’t this many Democrats left in the whole state!” Kennedy’s prepared remarks were also peppered with local color, courtesy Governor John Connally, about Darrell K. Royal and the UT Longhorns.

Speaking of Connally, here’s a profile of his wife, Nellie, from Texas Monthly.

Here’s The Artwork That JFK Saw The Night Before He Died (Christina Sterbenz, Business Insider)

The Dallas Museum has collected all the pieces of local Fort Worth pieces picked specifically for JFK’s hotel room the night before the shooting—which Fort Worth saw as a coup over its prominent neighboring polis.

Lyndon Johnson Was Scheduled To Visit My Austin Shul the Day After Kennedy Died (Cathy Schechter, Tablet)

The Vice President was on his home turf on the trip, and was supposed to visit a synagogue in his former congressional district. LBJ ended up keeping his promise, arriving a month later—as President.

The Last Beautiful Picture Of JFK And Jackie (David Luban, Business Insider)

The story behind the last photo of the famous couple:

The Umbrella Man (Errol Morris, New York Times)

From two years ago, an Errol Morris short about “the only man in Dallas under an umbrella,” who just happened to be standing by the limousine when the shots rang out. Conspiracy theorists have speculated that the umbrella was some sort pneumatic assassination device. That is, until Umbrella Man came forward with the real story…

Up For Auction: Watch Believed To Be Used To Declare JFK’s Time Of Death (Ula Ilnytzky,Talking Points Memo)

Dr. Kemp Clark, who declared the time of death, was wearing a watch purchased for him by his mother for $750 in 1949. The watch could fetch up to $150,000 at Christie’s.

My Father Made Jackie’s Pink Suit (Michael Horowicz, Daily Beast)

Jackie’s famous dress wasn’t actually from Chanel, but from a tailor’s shop in the Lower East Side. Here’s the story of the Jewish Polish immigrant who made it.

The World Changes as President John F. Kennedy is Assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald (New York Daily News)

And, of course, the cover:

Historical Trivia of the Day, Poorly-Timed Magazine Cover Edition (Evan McMurry, A Flea in the Fur of the Beast)

Yeah, I’m linking to myself. But this anecdote—about a young Republican intellectual magazine that printed 70,000 copies of their make-or-break issue featuring a cover mercilessly mocking Kennedy on November 22, 1963—is worth it.

Bronx Tale of a BB Gun and Infamy in the Making (Dan Barry, New York Times)

About a New York City landlord who caught one of his teenage tenants practicing with a BB gun. The boy’s name? Lee Harvey Oswald. The New York Times recalls the assassin’s teenage years through his NYC neighbors.

A Killer’s Last Steps (James Reston Jr., Slate)

A walking tour of Oswald’s final path.

Ex-AP Writer Recalls Serving as Oswald Pallbearer (Mike Cochran, Associated Press)

A remembrance of what had to be one of the saddest funerals of all time. Not even the minister showed up. Cochran writes:

Shaking his head ever so slightly, Jerry Flemmons of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram turned to me and said, “Cochran, if we’re gonna write a story about the burial of Lee Harvey Oswald, we’re gonna have to bury the son of a bitch ourselves.”

Cochran ended up helping for the real reason reporters do anything: the scoop.

“May God Be With You, My Dear Mrs. Kennedy” (Pamela Coloff, Texas Monthly)

The letters from Texans to Jackie Kennedy, expressing guilt, grief and remorse over their state’s role in the assassination.

Window Displays of Affection (Julie Bosman, New York Times)

The spontaneous displays of grief from New Yorkers following the assassination.

Most Believe Kennedy Assassinated in Conspiracy Plot (Washington Post)

62-29%, appropriate for the event that mainstreamed conspiracy theories.

Via: Mediaite.com

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A Beautiful Mediocrity

By almost any measure, John F. Kennedy was a middling president at best, and an occasionally disastrous one. The Bay of Pigs fiasco, the Cuban missile crisis, setting the nation on the wrong course in Vietnam, his nepotism, the spying on political rivals — all must weigh heavily in our judgment of his presidency. And while Kennedy the president was a middle-of-the-range performer at best, Kennedy the man has been relentlessly diminished by the eventual revealing of the facts of his day-to-day life.

Conservatives who see in Kennedy a committed combatant in the Cold War and a supply-side tax-cutter must keep in mind his bungling at home and abroad. Liberals who see in Kennedy a receptacle for all they hold holy must keep in mind his calculating cynicism — for example, his opposition to civil-rights legislation when he believed its passage would strengthen the Republican president proposing it. Kennedy’s virtues — his vocal anti-Communism, his assertive sense of the American national interest, his tax-cutting — would hardly make him a welcome figure among those who today claim his mantle. His vices, on the other hand, are timeless.

The Cuban missile crisis is generally presented as the great episode of Kennedy’s hanging tough in the face of Communist aggression, but, like so much about Kennedy’s life, that story represents a triumph of public relations over substance. Kennedy gave up much more than he let on to resolve the crisis, agreeing to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey — on the condition that the concession remain secret, so as not to undermine his political career or his brother’s. And the Cuban missile crisis was brought on in no small part by Kennedy’s inviting displays of weakness: His performance at the 1961 Vienna summit made little impression onNikita Khrushchev, and within a few months the Berlin Wall was under construction. After the Bay of Pigs, the Soviets had little reason to suppose that Cuba was anything but a safe port for them.

Via: NRO

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Three Great Men Died That Day: JFK, C.S. Lewis, and Aldous Huxley

On November 22, 1963, three towering figures of the 20th century died. John F. Kennedy is the one that we all remember, but let’s consider the others.

Do you remember what you were doing the day Aldous Huxley died? Or C.S. Lewis? You don’t think so? Well, the odds are that if you were old enough to be laying down memories at the time, you do. Because it was also the day President Kennedy was assassinated.

Getty (2); Corbis

The indelible experience of hearing the news is captured well in the opening scene of Frederick Forsyth’s thriller The Odessa File, as the announcement interrupts a song in mid-bar on our German hero’s car radio.

‘Jesus,’ he breathed quietly, eased down on the brake pedal and swung into the right-hand side of the road. He glanced up. Right down the long, broad, straight highway through Altona towards the centre of Hamburg other drivers had heard the same broadcast and were pulling in to the side of the road as if driving and listening to the radio had suddenly become mutually exclusive, which in a way they had.

In this way the shots fired in Dallas echoed almost instantaneously around the world, and plunged uncountable numbers into shock, grief, fear for the future, and reflections on mortality. It was the day of St Cecelia, patron saint of music. Later American singer-songwriter Dion, and after him Marvin Gaye, hauntingly sang ‘Has anybody here seen my old friend John? Can you tell me where he’s gone?’—because John F. Kennedy’s assassination did touch many millions as if they had lost a friend.

Via: The Daily Beast

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SPOKESWOMAN: OBAMA TOO BUSY FOR DEBATE PREP

Today, aboard Air Force One, traveling press secretary for the Obama campaign Jen Psaki doubled down on the Obama team strategy of playing down expectations for next week’s debate with Mitt Romney. She explained to the press:

The President will have some time to prepare, and he’s been doing some studying.  But it is certainly less than we anticipated because of the events in the Middle East, because of his busy travel schedule, because of just the constraints of governing.  So it is less than we originally planned.

I will just take this opportunity to say that Mitt Romney on the other hand has been preparing earlier and with more focus than any presidential candidate in modern history -- not John F. Kennedy, not President Bill Clinton, not President George Bush, not Ronald Reagan has prepared as much as he has.  So there’s no question that he will have a lead on how prepared he is.

Wait just a second. President Obama is saying he’s been doing less debate prep than he normally would have because of events in the Middle East? Because of the constraints of governing?

Really?

Which events would those be? Events like the murder of our Libyan ambassador, which prompted busy busy Obama to deliver a slapdash address, then blow off all strategizing for a fundraiser in Vegas? Events like the takeover of our embassy in Tunisia by al Qaeda, which precipitated an appearance on David Letterman?

What kind of governing has precluded Obama from debate prep? Governing, like the wonderful job he’s done on that Libyan investigation, which he’s largely blown off to hang with Jay-Z and Beyonce? Governing, like shunning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but finding time to be self-proclaimed “eye candy” on The View? Governing, like presiding over a massive economic inflation just before an election, but finding time to comment on the crucial issue of football referees?

Via: Breitbart

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