New York – Fifty years after his inaugural, John F. Kennedy's words continue to enlarge AmericaWe are as far removed in time from the inauguration of John F. Kennedy as that day was from the presidency of William Howard Taft. To those of us who were young in 1961, Taft seemed like ancient history.Yet as the nation marks the 50th anniversary of JFK's summons to a new generation, his presence and his presidency still speak, at times powerfully, to succeeding generations. In part, this is because the medium constantly gives new life to the message and the man — in film, on television, nowhere more vividly than in the sights and tones of his own speeches and press conferences and almost singularly in the inaugural address.This resonance is a possibility of modern presidency, but not a certainty. Many of Kennedy’s successors, fairly or unfairly, already exist far more in scholarly precincts than in the popular consciousness.Nor is his endurance, as glib critics and the resentful right suggest, simply an artifact of "image." That notion reaches back to a myth about the first Kennedy/Nixon debate, which frustrated partisans invoked to console themselves in defeat: The majority of Americans who saw the debate thought Kennedy won, but they must have been distracted by his charm and his opponent’s on-camera perspiration because the minority who only listened on radio gave the victory to Nixon. It’s an easy analysis — and a rationalization repeated to this day. It also ignores a decisive reality. Who would choose to listen on radio to the first presidential debate in history rather than watch it on television? Almost entirely those who didn’t have television service: They were disproportionately remote, rural, Protestant — and inclined to favor Nixon in the first place.Both substance and spirit are essential to greatness in a leader.Spy Technologies volume 4 Counter Surveillance LP sampler.Madhouse (23 february 2007).Cirque Du Soleil .Download Janeiro.Phantasma volume 1
The enduring greatness of JFK
New York – Fifty years after his inaugural, John F. Kennedy's words continue to enlarge AmericaWe are as far removed in time from the inauguration of John F. Kennedy as that day was from the presidency of William Howard Taft. To those of us who were young in 1961, Taft seemed like ancient history.Yet as the nation marks the 50th anniversary of JFK's summons to a new generation, his presence and his presidency still speak, at times powerfully, to succeeding generations. In part, this is because the medium constantly gives new life to the message and the man — in film, on television, nowhere more vividly than in the sights and tones of his own speeches and press conferences and almost singularly in the inaugural address.This resonance is a possibility of modern presidency, but not a certainty. Many of Kennedy’s successors, fairly or unfairly, already exist far more in scholarly precincts than in the popular consciousness.Nor is his endurance, as glib critics and the resentful right suggest, simply an artifact of "image." That notion reaches back to a myth about the first Kennedy/Nixon debate, which frustrated partisans invoked to console themselves in defeat: The majority of Americans who saw the debate thought Kennedy won, but they must have been distracted by his charm and his opponent’s on-camera perspiration because the minority who only listened on radio gave the victory to Nixon. It’s an easy analysis — and a rationalization repeated to this day. It also ignores a decisive reality. Who would choose to listen on radio to the first presidential debate in history rather than watch it on television? Almost entirely those who didn’t have television service: They were disproportionately remote, rural, Protestant — and inclined to favor Nixon in the first place.Both substance and spirit are essential to greatness in a leader.Spy Technologies volume 4 Counter Surveillance LP sampler.Madhouse (23 february 2007).Cirque Du Soleil .Download Janeiro.Phantasma volume 1