All the way with LBJ and Obama

Count on it: When it comes to foreign policy, two-term presidents -- and even most one-term presidents -- will change course along the way. Since 1933, only two have not: Lyndon Johnson, who rode the Vietnam War all the way down, and Barack Obama. That's not a good sign.

Consider the record. When Franklin Roosevelt entered the White House in 1933, he began by torpedoing the World Economic Conference and accepting neutrality legislation. But over the 1930s, he moved from isolationism to leading the United States into the Second World War.

At first, Harry Truman drew down U.S. military strength rapidly after 1945, especially in Europe. But as the Cold War began to take shape, he reversed course and brought the U.S. into NATO.

Dwight Eisenhower moved from rejecting summits with Soviet leaders and opposing Western intervention in the Middle East, to holding summits and intervening himself. Jimmy Carter couldn't accept the Soviet Union was a problem, until it invaded Afghanistan.

Ronald Reagan confronted the Evil Empire, but after 1983, decided the time was right to negotiate with it. George W. Bush entered office saying that the U.S. military should be doing less in the world, but 9/11 changed many minds, including his.

The only real exception to the rule is Johnson, who hated the Vietnam War, but who got us into it and was never willing to get us out. True, the changes don't happen for the same reason. Sometimes, presidents are wrong and recognize it, like Carter.

Other times, presidents, like John F. Kennedy, deliberately reverse the policies of their predecessor, only to find out after a few years that the previous guy wasn't entirely wrong. At times, as with 9/11, the world changes, and the president changes as a result.

And sometimes, as with Reagan, their initial policies work, which allows them to move on to a new part of their strategy. But in most cases, change isn't a sign of failure. It's a sign of success, of adaptation, or at least of learning.

Nor is it a sign that presidents are giving up on their goals or their core beliefs. With the exception of genuinely clueless presidents like Carter, most changes are about means, not ends.

That's because it's not reasonable to expect presidents to change who they are. If they were so easily changed, they wouldn't have become president. But it is reasonable to expect them to look at how they're doing, at the world around them, and adjust accordingly.

Obama stands out because he is the same man we first elected in 2008 -- which is fair enough -- with the same foreign policy. Unlike almost all of his predecessors, he's not changed significantly. Unfortunately, that's a lot less reasonable.

Yes, there have been tactical adjustments. Obama talks less about the United Nations now than he did in 2009. But the first thing he did when he came into office was to reach out to Iran; over six years later, we're still riding that train.

Obama wanted to "reset" relations with Russia. He still hankers after the same thing, as evidenced by his comments about Vladimir Putin after the Iran deal. He wanted to reduce U.S. involvement in the Middle East, and reach out to adversarial regimes like Cuba's diplomatically, so that he could focus more on domestic policy. No change there, either.

I don't agree with these policies. But what is remarkable to me is the consistency with which Obama has pursued them. Obama has a perfect right to have his values. But precedent suggests that presidents who don't adapt how they apply their values are regarded by history as failures.

 - Ted R. Bromund is a senior research fellow in Anglo-American Relations in The Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at The Heritage Foundation.

Originally appeared in Newsday

Via: Heritage Foundation

Continue Reading....

White House Staff Tells All: Inside The Private Lives Of First Families

A new book released this week gives readers an unprecedented look at life inside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, from the perspective of the traditionally reticent White House staff. In her book, The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House, Kate Andersen Brower brings together their stories from the administration of JFK to the current day.

Brower’s research was extensive, including interviewing over 100 former White House staff. She spoke to retired butlers, ushers, bakers, florists, maids, and doormen among others. Some staff members werereluctant to participate in Brower’s project at first, due to an unwritten tradition of silence about their work; but the writer was persistent and persuaded some to share their stories, and the momentum built from there.

Not surprisingly, one of Brower’s discoveries was that life inside the White House became tense between the Clintons following the revelation of President Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky. Bill was relegated to the proverbial couch in the residence for months. Staff also recalled profanity-laced shouting matchesbetween the couple that only intensified following the affair. Staff suspected that Hillary threw one of her bedside books at him, hitting his face and leaving blood-stained sheets for the staff to replace.

Bill and Hillary were the most private occupants of the White House in recent decades, according to Brower. “I’ve had staffers say that the Clintons were definitely the most paranoid first family that they ever had to work with,” she said.

A very poignant moment, which Brower opens the book with, follows the assassination of John F. Kennedy as seen through the eyes of doorman Preston Bruce. He recalled a tearful hug with Bobby and Jackie Kennedy when they arrived back at the White House at 4 am, immediately after JFK’s death. Jackie, still in her bloodstained pink woolsuit and clutching Bobby’s arm, said to him softly, “Bruce, you waited until we came.” He replied, “You knew I was going to be here, Mrs. Kennedy.”

Brower writes:

Exhausted, Bruce spent what was left of that night sitting upright in a chair in a tiny bedroom on the third floor. He took off his jacket and bow tie and unbuttoned the collar of his stiff white shirt, but he wouldn’t let himself give into exhaustion. “I didn’t want to lie down, in case Mrs Kennedy needed me.” He refused to go home for the next four days, seeing the Kennedys through the funeral and its aftermath.

Mrs. Kennedy thanked Bruce by giving him a tie that JFK had worn on the flight to Dallas. Bobby Kennedy gave him the gloves he wore to his brother’s funeral.

Via: Western Journalism

Continue Reading......

WATCH: Secret Service Human Shields Mysteriously Ordered Off Back Of JFK Car

WATCH: SECRET SERVICE HUMAN SHIELDS MYSTERIOUSLY ORDERED OFF BACK OF JFK CAR

Jun 15, 2013 16 Comments Spit Stixx

Via: Pat Dollard

Continue Reading.....

[VIDEO] Brokaw: People In Conservative States Wanted Kennedy Shot

Is it possible for Americans to commemorate the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s death without the media taking potshots at the Right?

Consider former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw who while on MSNBC’s The Cycle Friday recounting where he was when Kennedy was shot decided he needed to make the case that people in conservative states wanted the president killed (video follows with transcript and commentary):

TOM BROKAW: I was a reporter in Omaha. I was the morning news editor. I did the cut-ins for the Today show on the noon news, and it was kind of an exhausting schedule, about nine hours. And I was in the newsroom kind of cleaning up, and the bells on the wire machines went off. AP and UPI was how we got the news in those days. Not a tweet or anything online. And it meant there was a bulletin of some kind. And I went over and Merriman Smith - who really became legendary for dictating on the run, the UPI reporter – had dictated that shots were fired at the presidential motorcade, the president perhaps fatally wounded. That was the first thing that we saw. And then of course it rolled out there in Parkland and then the announcement of his death.

We didn't have the network up at KMTV because NBC would give back a local station one hour of midday programming. I ran down, there was a garden show on the air. So I put it on over the garden show and then did that a couple of times. And this was unusual but it was not unheard of. As I came running out of the announce booth the chief engineer - with whom I didn't get along very well. A really curmudgeonly guy, old, kind of a gnarly guy – and he said, “What happened?” And I said, “Kennedy was shot.” And he said , “About time somebody shot that S.O.B.” That was heard in other places, mostly in the conservative states. But he was, that was reflecting his real feeling, and they had to peel me away from him. I then ran back up and continued to work.

Via: Newsbusters.org

Continue Reading....

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

Continue Reading....

Americans mark 50th anniversary of JFK’s appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show

Americans of all nations today are remembering a tragic moment in Sixties consciousness: the day in 1963 that President John F. Kennedy, standing in the door of the University of Alabama’s Foster Auditorium, was gunned down by Manson cult member Sirhan Sirhan on the balcony of a hotel in Memphis.

But for those Americans who remember the Sixties, the sting of that horrible day is partly salved by memories of JFK’s too-brief administration: how he read the Port Huron statement to an ecstatic crowd near Checkpoint Charlie in divided Prague; how Pete Seeger had to be restrained from cutting Kennedy’s loudspeakers when he “plugged in” at the Newport Folk Festival.

Also undimmed by countless reruns are our memories of how the tousle-haired young man from Hyannis created AmeriCorps, whose “diggers” rescued strung-out Haight-Ashbury runaways as the Summer of Love turned into a year of burn-baby-burn.

Via Daily Caller

Continue Reading....

LEE HARVEY OSWALD WAS NO ‘PATSY’

“Of all the people I interviewed in New Orleans regarding the Kennedy assassination, Carlos Bringuier was the one I trusted most. I could see in his eyes he was always telling me the complete truth.”  (Oriana Fallaci, L, Europeo, 1969.)

“The skinny guy walked into my store and started looking around,” recalls Carlos Bringuier about the afternoon of August 5, 1963. “But I could sense he wasn’t a shopper. Sure enough, after a few minutes of browsing he came up and extended his hand. “Good afternoon,” he said. “I’m Lee Oswald.”

In 1963 the CIA regarded the Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil (DRE) “the most militant and deeply motivated of all the Cuban exile organizations seeking to oust Castro.” Carlos Bringuier was their representative in New Orleans. It was DRE agents who infiltrated Cuba and brought out the first reports of Soviet missile installations–to the scoffs of  the White House’s Best and Brightest. It took two months for anyone to finally take them seriously. A U-2 flight then confirmed every last detail of what the DRE boys had been risking their lives for months to report.

“Oswald approached me because my name was so often linked to anti-Castro activities in the local (New Orleans) news,” recalls Bringuier. “He even jammed his hand in his pocket and pulled out a roll of bills, offering to contribute to the anti-Castro cause. I was suspicious and declined, but he kept blasting Castro and Communism in very colorful terms the whole time he was in the store. He returned the next day, snarled out a few more anti-Castroisms and dropped off his training manual for the anti-Castro fight, Guidebook for Marines.”

Via: Human Events

Continue Reading.....

John Kerry Has JFK Conspiracy Theory; Won’t Elaborate When Pressed by NBC’s David Gregory

In a recent interview with NBC, Secretary of State John Kerry revealed that he is a bit of a conspiracy theorist when it comes to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. When pressed Sunday for more details on that, however, the former senator refused, deeming it inappropriate for him to divulge his thoughts on the matter.

NBC’s Meet the Press host David Gregory quoted Kerry as having recently said “To this day, I have serious doubts that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone” in killing JFK 50 years ago this month.

Noting that a high-ranking official holding such views would be “surprising” to many Americans, Gregory asked: “Would you care to elaborate?”

“No,” Kerry flatly responded. “I just have a point of view. And I’m not going to get into that. It’s not something that I think needs to be commented on, and certainly not at this time.”

Gregory pressed on anyhow, asking Kerry whether he feels some of the conspiracy theories are “valid” at some level.

“I’m not going to go into it,” the secretary reiterated. “It’s just inappropriate, and I’m not going to do more than say that it’s a point of view that I have. But it’s not right, or worthy, or appropriate for me to comment further.”

Via: Mediate.com

Continue Reading.....

Flashback: J.F.K On How Tax Cuts Fuel An Economy, Not Hurt It

Enter the way-back machine and check this one out from JFK.  Ever heard the term “Reagan Democrat”?  Even before Reagan, it was well understood that tax cuts stimulated the economy. Here’s an example of the same line of thought, from JFK, from a time when Democrats understood economics and truth…

Via: Weasel Zippers

[VIDEO] Bob Schieffer on JFK Assassination: ‘Nothing Like This Had Ever Happened’

As we approach the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, it seems a metaphysical certitude there are going to be some really absurd statements made by the liberal media concerning this tragedy.

I suggest none will be as preposterous as CBS Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer actually claiming Sunday, “Nothing like this had ever happened” (video follows with transcript and commentary):

BOB SCHIEFFER, HOST: We want to turn now to a fateful day you're going to be hearing a lot about over the next month because November 22nd marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John Kennedy, a day that many believe changed America forever. The first word of it for many of us came from Walter Cronkite.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALTER CRONKITE: From Dallas, Texas, the flash apparently official: President Kennedy died at 1:00 PM Central Standard Time, 2:00 Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHIEFFER: The nation was plunged into shock. Nothing like this had ever happened.

Yes, nothing like this had ever happened - as long as you ignore Abraham Lincoln being assassinated in 1865, James Garfield in 1881, and William McKinley in 1901.

Via: Newsbusters

Continue Reading.....

SO WHEN DID THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS BECOME KENNEDY’S ‘VICTORY’?

That Khrushchev swept the floor with Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis was mainstream conservative conclusion throughout much of the Cold War. Richard Nixon and Barry Goldwater, for instance, represented opposite poles of the Republican establishment of their time.

“We locked Castro’s communism into Latin America and threw away the key to its removal,” growled Barry Goldwater about the JFK’s Missile Crisis “solution.”

“Kennedy pulled defeat out of the jaws of victory,” complained Richard Nixon. “Then gave the Soviets squatters rights in our backyard.”

Generals Curtis Le May and Maxwell Taylor represented opposite poles of the military establishment.

“The biggest defeat in our nation’s history!” bellowed Air Force chief Curtis Lemay while whacking his fist on his desk upon learning the details of the deal.

“We missed the big boat,” complained Gen. Maxwell Taylor after learning the same.

“We’ve been had!” yelled then Navy chief George Anderson upon hearing on October 28, 1962, how JFK “solved” the missile crisis. Adm. Anderson was the man in charge of the very “blockade” against Cuba.

“It’s a public relations fable that Khrushchev quailed before Kennedy,” wrote Alexander Haig. “The legend of the eyeball to eyeball confrontation invented by Kennedy’s men paid a handsome political dividend. But the Kennedy-Khrushchev deal was a deplorable error resulting in political havoc and human suffering through the America’s.”That Khrushchev swept the floor with Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis was mainstream conservative conclusion throughout much of the Cold War. Richard Nixon and Barry Goldwater, for instance, represented opposite poles of the Republican establishment of their time.

“We locked Castro’s communism into Latin America and threw away the key to its removal,” growled Barry Goldwater about the JFK’s Missile Crisis “solution.”

“Kennedy pulled defeat out of the jaws of victory,” complained Richard Nixon. “Then gave the Soviets squatters rights in our backyard.”

Generals Curtis Le May and Maxwell Taylor represented opposite poles of the military establishment.

“The biggest defeat in our nation’s history!” bellowed Air Force chief Curtis Lemay while whacking his fist on his desk upon learning the details of the deal.

“We missed the big boat,” complained Gen. Maxwell Taylor after learning the same.

“We’ve been had!” yelled then Navy chief George Anderson upon hearing on October 28, 1962, how JFK “solved” the missile crisis. Adm. Anderson was the man in charge of the very “blockade” against Cuba.

“It’s a public relations fable that Khrushchev quailed before Kennedy,” wrote Alexander Haig. “The legend of the eyeball to eyeball confrontation invented by Kennedy’s men paid a handsome political dividend. But the Kennedy-Khrushchev deal was a deplorable error resulting in political havoc and human suffering through the America’s.”That Khrushchev swept the floor with Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis was mainstream conservative conclusion throughout much of the Cold War. Richard Nixon and Barry Goldwater, for instance, represented opposite poles of the Republican establishment of their time.

“We locked Castro’s communism into Latin America and threw away the key to its removal,” growled Barry Goldwater about the JFK’s Missile Crisis “solution.”

Via: Human Events

Continue Reading.....

Would Democrats Embrace a JFK Today?

 As Democrats begin maneuvering for the 2016 presidential race, there isn't one who would think of disparaging John F. Kennedy's stature as a Democratic Party hero. Yet it's a pretty safe bet that none would dream of running on Kennedy's approach to government or embrace his political beliefs.

Today's Democratic Party — the home of Barack Obama, John Kerry, and Al Gore — wouldn't give the time of day to a candidate like JFK.

The 35th president was an ardent tax-cutter who championed across-the-board, top-to-bottom reductions in personal and corporate tax rates, slashed tariffs to promote free trade, and even spoke out against the "confiscatory" property taxes being levied in too many cities.

He was anything but a big-spending, welfare-state liberal. "I do not believe that Washington should do for the people what they can do for themselves through local and private effort," Kennedy bluntly asserted during the 1960 campaign. It was a message he memorably restated in his inaugural address: "And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country." One of his first acts as president was to institute a pay cut for top White House staffers, and that was only the start of his budgetary austerity. "To the surprise of many of his appointees," longtime aide Ted Sorensen would later write, he "personally scrutinized every agency request with a cold eye and encouraged his budget director to say 'no.'"

Via: TownHall

Continue Reading.....

Poll: John F. Kennedy tops presidential rating

As the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination approaches next month, polling released Tuesday as part of a new book about Kennedy’s legacy shows that he remains one of the most highly rated presidents of the past 50 years.

Asked to rate all the presidents from 1950-2000 on a scale of 0 to 10, Kennedy scored the highest, at 7.6. He was followed by Ronald Reagan, at 6.9, Dwight Eisenhower, at 6.8, and Bill Clinton, at 6.7. None of the other presidents scored above a 5.0.

Nevertheless, Kennedy would not be Americans’ first choice to bring back as the next president, if any former leader alive or dead could serve again. Asked who they would most want to bring back, 24 percent of adults chose Reagan, 21 percent chose Clinton and 13 percent chose Kennedy. Abraham Lincoln was next, at 9 percent.

(Also on POLITICO: Sabato’s JFK book takes aim at House conspiracy theory)

The findings, from a survey of more than 2,000 adults conducted this summer, were released Tuesday to coincide with the release of a new book from University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato, which takes on evidence of popular conspiracy theories about Kennedy’s assassination and analyzes his lasting legacy.

At a press conference unveiling his book at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Sabato said it was the findings on the impact Kennedy’s life has had that most struck him, not the findings about his death.

“The most important thing didn’t have anything to do with the assassination, it was the fact that even though John Kennedy had a terribly abbreviated tragic presidency, he’s actually lived for 50 years through nine successors,” Sabato afterward told a handful of reporters, which included press from the U.K., Germany and Korea.

Via: Politico

Continue Reading....

Al Sharpton: Obama is 'the new Kennedy because of Dr. King'

Rev. Al Sharpton's love for President Obama was on full display Wednesday, when he said on MSNBC that he told Obama that he "is the new [President] Kennedy because of Dr. [Martin Luther] King."

Sharpton made the comments to MSNBC host Richard Liu on the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington led by King. It was on this day in 1963 that King delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech.

"A lot of the media is trying to make [Obama] the new King," Sharpton said. "He's the result of King. He's the President Kennedy of today, the President Johnson of today."

When Liu asked what the anniversary meant to Obama, Sharpton said he thinks "it puts a sense of obligation on him that he is manifesting the dreams and wishes of many and that history is calling him to take a real stand that would show that the sacrifices and pain was not for nothing and that he must continue this struggle."

Sharpton said that Obama was not a civil rights leader, but as president he could lay out policies that would further the work of civil rights leaders.

Via: Washington Examiner

Continue Reading....

OBAMA: DEMONIZING TAX CUTS

So Barack Obama is on his soapbox, demonizing tax cuts. He didn’t stop after last night at the DNC, when he said:

Now, our friends at the Republican convention were more than happy to talk about everything they think is wrong with America, but they didn't have much to say about how they'd make it right. They want your vote, but they don't want you to know their plan. And that's because all they have to offer is the same prescription they've had for the last thirty years: Have a surplus? Try a tax cut. Deficit too high? Try another. Feel a cold coming on? Take two tax cuts, roll back some regulations, and call us in the morning!

Today on Obama’s Twitter account, it read:

POTUS on the GOP’s plan: Tax cuts when times are good, tax cuts when times are bad. Tax cuts to cure your love life.

Hmm . . .  JFK cut taxes. Bill Clinton, once he got his head out of his liberal posterior, cut capital gains taxes in 1997, spurring an economic ascension. (Obama will have to forgive me for using that word; people around him only use it in reference to his messianic destiny.)

There has only been one candidate who ever made raising taxes the centerpiece of his campaign: Walter Mondale.

He won one state: his own. He also won Washington D.C. That was it.

For those who would think tax cuts are an integral part of economic recovery, Obama’s patronizing attitude is insulting.  But then, virtually everything Obama does conveys a basic contempt for the kind of common sense that most Americans have about their finances. It’s all smoke and mirrors for him.

But the smoke is clearing fast.

Via: Breitbart

Continue Reading...