Was JFK a good president?
 

Today is the anniversary of his inauguration, and I got around to thinking about it. Well, do you think he was? Or... do you just think his greatness is just a product of exaggeration because of his assassination? I don't know myself, so it'd be great if a few people could shed a little light on this.

He was a nasty scumbag just like all the rest of them. Had he never been born the Vietnam War might not have happened.

Honestly, I've been thinking over the exact same thing for awhile. I honestly don't know why people consider JFK such a great president.

Personally, he seemed like he was very coc-ky, and wreckless, and always on the edge of war. He fumbled Cuba horribly, and is praised for bluffing out the Russians once. The trade embargo never dissolved communism, and the Soviet Union stayed strong through his tenure. Worse yet he IS the one who started the Vietnam War. Johnson, and Nixon did fumble it pretty badly afterwards but Kennedy is definitely the one who started it.

To his credit, he got a man on the moon, but apart from that, his presidency was so overly exaggerated. I think it was just the fact he was young, good looking(well, by president standards), and extremely charismatic. Plus, he died in his prime in office which brought him to a state of martyrdom. With that said, I think Kennedy was an extremely war-like president, and basically just daring the commies to snap back.

Not to mention basically the only reason why he was even in office was because he was part of a mob family(You know, the guys who randomly pick a neighborhood, and snap the knees of everyone there who doesn't give them money, just so they don't get their knees snapped).

inb4 conspiracy theories!


EDIT: drat... too late.

I haven't got a clue, but I do have a vision on things like this.
Everyone who wants to be in charge of a country, isn't suitable to do so.
If you're a wise man, you stay well clear of a 'job' like that ;).

Nobody's cooking up any conspiracy theories. I don't even know any aside from that grassy knole thing, but we're talking about when he was alive, not dead.

It's not really a conspiracy theory. Kennedy's father was a bootlegger, and I really don't understand how you could be a bootlegger and not be in/affiliated with the mob.

Does being in a mob family guarantee you an election? That's never happened, and more likely than not, never will. I also don't think you're giving him enough credit for what he did for race relations while in office. Beyond any character flaws he may have had, that and his space exploration endeavors make him a good president - in my view.

Race relations is another one he gets the nod for. However, I don't think he deserves that much credit for the space thing. I mean, all it means is that he chose to fund scientists a lot more than presidents before. I think the scientists deserve a lot more credit than Kennedy.

I think starting Vietnam, however, counteracts all of that. Kennedy was a very aggressive president. I honestly think he would have turned Vietnam very large scale very quickly. Johnson sort of didn't know what the **** he was doing, and Nixon was just plain a crook more concerned about his own paranoid agenda.

Kennedy, however, seemed hellbent on taking on the Soviet Union. A war that patience won, not aggression like Kennedy was offering.

Also, I'm not saying he bribed his way into office. I'm saying he procured influence, and money, and power from his mob family which eventually assisted him in getting in office.

He sucked like every other leader of a country.

...Well, there's always a backwoods for people who don't like government figures. You two can live in nature, and raise a family.

There have been good presidents. FDR is a prime example of a good president. If you read up on what he did, he did a lot of active things to help US cope with the great depression. His new deal was probably as radical, and hands on, as a president will ever get to making real change for the people.

Kennedy did a lot of things, too, but, I don't feel they are particularly substantial(with the exception of race relations, but I'd hope there wouldn't be any president foolish enough to go against what MLK Jr was doing) in comparison. The man on the moon was a huge step, but really a symbolic victory than an actual tangible real world event.

As harsh as it sounds, he just kind of died at the right place at the right time. He really didn't have time to fail, and if Vietnam would have went the same way, and it inevitably was going to, he'd be just about as highly respected of a president as LBJ(who also was big on supporting racial relations, if memory serves).

In those years he did good, but no where near his legend. He was a lot like Obama very big on expectations, but I'd give him the nod over Obama, because he actually met a lot of his own.

I think Obama's doing an alright job. He just needs to be a bit more bipartisan. By the way, FDR was good, but his cousin Teddy was the best there ever was.

Teddy was a tad too military for my liking. FDR was such an amazing president that they had to actually change the rules, cause he'd probably have been president until he died.

4 terms, my friends. Only president to pull that off.

Teddy also preserved so much land, though, but he still was an avid hunter. Everything about him was a contradiction, but he loved his country, and he didn't care too much for political parties. FDR is up there as one of my favorites. Unfortunately, living in Alabama and saying that gets me labeled as a "socialist."

Well, I wouldn't be offended. I very much lean towards socialism in my political philosophy, personally.

Teddy was also involved in the Spanish-American war which is quite possibly one of the greediest, and most vile things America has ever done.