NBC News: John F. Kennedy- ‘On Meet The Press Through The Years’

Source:NBC News– U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy (Democrat, Massachusetts) on NBC News’s Meet The Press in 1958.

Source:The New Democrat

“From the time he was a congressman for Massachusetts’ 11th district, John F. Kennedy took time to appear on various NBC News programs. From Meet the Press to Home and The Huntley-Brinkley Report, Kennedy discussed the most pressing issues of the day on NBC.

The arc of Kennedy’s career can be traced by these appearances, as we see him in the various offices he held, speaking on a wide array of topics. Among these are corruption in the Democratic Party, the United States’ relationship with the Soviet Union, an escalation of troops in Vietnam, and his political ambitions through the years. There are some moments, particularly on Meet the Press, in which he is forced to defend his beliefs vigorously. At other times, he leisurely engages interviewers on the joys of public service and speculates on the future of women in politics. Nevertheless, his demeanor is always that of a collected and confident leader.

This collection spans more than a decade, from 1951 to shortly before Kennedy’s death in 1963. In 1952, we see his keen political acumen, predicting four years in advance that Adlai Stevenson would likely be the next Democratic nominee for president. Kennedy has the opportunity to reject the idea that his religious affiliation could be a political setback on Meet the Press two years before his own run for the presidency. In 1960, he shares his view that technology and space travel will be a key factor in “the image of the United States abroad” as it seeks to trump the Soviet Union worldwide. Finally, in an exclusive interview with David Brinkley and Chet Huntley, which would be his last appearance as a guest on NBC, Kennedy displays a modesty that one might not expect from a war hero with a Harvard degree. When asked by Huntley if the office of the President is unmanageable, Kennedy responds that “this country and its affairs are not managed in the real sense in the White House. There’s 180 million decisions being made which finally manage the country.”

Fifty years after his tragic death, we remember a president that inspired millions and dedicated his life to public service.

Go to NBC Universal to license any portion of this video.”

From NBC News

John Kennedy, was perfect for NBC’s Meet The Press, because he was so quick. The people there liked him and knew that he could not only answer their questions, but wanted to do it and answer them with depth. Very similar to Bill Clinton or Barack Obama, he was very quick off the cuff and could answer questions with humor.

Meet The Press liked interviewing JFK because he was likable, popular, well-known, and very funny. The 1950s was a fascinating time and JFK was in Congress the whole time as the country was dealing with the Cold War, post World War II economic boom, the early days of the civil rights movement, and even American women starting to make important impacts out of the home in the American economy.

Meet The Press had female anchors and questioners. There were women in Congress like Senator Margaret Chase Smith and many others. Jack Kennedy was in his thirties and early forties during this decade and had a great future ahead of him if he wanted it. Which is why Meet The Press loved having him on.

Jack Kennedy, was sort of an absentee Representative in the House. Somewhat bored and loved being a bachelor and enjoying the Washington nightlife when Congress was in session. It wasn’t until JFK decided to run for the Senate in 1952 that he started taking his job more serious and making his positions known in Congress.

There are a lot of things to love about Jack Kennedy and he is my political hero, but he’s definitely someone who grew in office. Wasn’t a great Representative, but a good Senator at least in the sense that he started taking issues seriously and studying them and not just going to his committee hearings, but knowing the right questions to ask.

I don’t believe JFK becomes President of the United States on his personal appeal and family name alone in 1960, had he not become a serious Senator and taken his job in Congress seriously and getting on the road and getting his political platform out there.

I’m not sure JFK gets into his politics without his father Joe pushing him. But it’s clear that once JFK got into politics and ran for the House in 1946 and was elected he loved it and became a natural campaigner and politician. He gave a great speech, great interviews, knew how to excite and inspirer people.

JFK wasn’t a natural public servant and someone who actually loved doing the job that he was elected to do. His tenure in the House is a pretty good example of that. I believe he sort of grew in public service once he was elected to the Senate, especially his second term when he started considered running for president in 1957 or so.

JFK was someone even though had a fairly thin resume outside of Congress and somewhat of a thin voting record and list of accomplishments in Congress, was someone who was great at expiring people and laying out a vision for how America could be even greater and how all Americans could succeed in America.

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CBS News: The Longines Chronoscope- U.S. Representative John F. Kennedy (1952)

Source:Public Resource– U.S. Representative John F. Kennedy (Democrat, Massachusetts) on The Longines Chronoscope, in 1952. He was in the House but running for the Senate, against Senator Henry Cabot Lodge.

Source:The New Democrat 

“LONGINES CHRONOSCOPE WITH REP. JOHN F. KENNEDY – National Archives and Records Administration 1952-08-22 – ARC Identifier 95777 / Local Identifier LW-LW-132 – TELEVISION INTERVIEW: William Bradford Huie and Harold Levine talk with Rep. John F. Kennedy (Democrat, Massachusetts) on senatorial campaign between him and Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. (Republican, Massachusetts). DVD copied by IASL Master Scanner Katie Filbert.”

From Public Resource

John F. Kennedy, at this point was Representative John F. Kennedy who was completing his third and last term in the House of Representatives. And was running for Senate against a moderate-conservative Republican Senator Henry Cabot Lodge.

Jack Kennedy, was only thirty-five at this point and would become one of the youngest people ever elected to the U.S. Senate at thirty-five. JFK, served a total of fourteen-years in Congress (both in the House and Senate) and yet he was forty-three when he left Congress for the presidency in 1961. He is someone who wanted to move up quickly in American politics and not stay in one office for very long.

The House, was too small of a platform especially if your last name is Kennedy. So it’s a little hard to believe that JFK would’ve been someone who would’ve spent 20-30 years in the House even if it meant being Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, or serving in the Democratic Leadership.

I think JFK like his brother Ted, would’ve made a terrific U.S. Senator if he wanted it and served four, or five terms in the Senate after the House and completed his Congressional service and even public service in the Senate. And perhaps would’ve ended up chairing a couple of committees and maybe even becoming Democratic Leader in the Senate.

Jack Kennedy, didn’t have a very good record in the House. He was bored there and had a hard time dealing with being one of 435 Representatives there and a back bencher at that. And wasn’t a very serious Representative who missed a lot of floor votes and committee hearings and not known for passing any legislation.

JFK wasn’t much better as a Senator at least in his first term. But he writes a book Profiles in Courage in 1956, he marries Jacqueline Kennedy and his name is always in the news and starts to draw a serious following in the Democratic Party and becomes serious as a U.S. Senator. Which is how his name starts to get floated around as a possible presidential candidate. Who almost becomes Adlai Stevenson’s vice presidential nominee in 1956. And after that he when he puts most of his focus into becoming President of the United States.

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The New Republic: Opinion- Elaine Teng- Congress Blocks Washington-DC Marijuana Legalization: Time For Big Government to Butt Out

The New Republic: Opinion- Elaine Teng- Congress Blocks Washington-DC Marijuana Legalization

This post was originally posted at The New Democrat Plus

I’ve lost count how many times Republicans and so-called Conservatives talk about the need for federalism, state and local control, but that as long as states and locals governing what the way they approve. Doing things that they approve of. And of course they are going to make the exception that Washington is the nation’s capital and that the Federal Government, including Congress has a role in their affairs, because Washington receives federal aide to conduct it’s city business. But Washington is still a city, a local city with their own government. Their voters legally approved marijuana legalization and they have the right to enforce that.

Now big fat Uncle Sam who apparently doesn’t have enough to do like minding their own business and managing the affairs and business of the Federal Government, should figure out how to govern themselves and make their own big fat government work. Before they try to run someone’s else’s government and manage their affairs. It’s no secret why the U.S. Congress has approval rating somewhere around ten-percent that the Republican Party is going to own in the next Congress now controlling both the House and Senate. Because they are bunch of incompetent assholes, who see compromise as a sin and don’t know how to work with people who don’t always agree with them.

It is a good thing that out Founding Fathers, our founding Liberal set up our Federal Republic with our federal system. Perhaps they were physic and knew that big government statists in the future may try to run the entire country from Washington DC and treat the individual states like children and tell them that Uncle Sammy knows what is best for them and what they can and can’t do and how to govern themselves. If we did have a unitary system and not a federal system, and Washington State along with Colorado and now Washington DC passed their own marijuana legalization laws, big government statists in the Republican Party would try to throw out those laws as well.

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Brookings Institution: Opinion: Thomas Mann: The New Normal in Politics: Response to Gridlock and Gloom: How Voters Get the Government They Vote For

This post was originally posted at The New Democrat on WordPress

Brookings Institution: Opinion: Thomas Mann: The New Normal in Politics: Response to Gridlock and Gloom.

I don’t feel any sympathy for anyone for Americans who claim to hate the dysfunction in Washington, especially in Congress, but at the same time vote for people who are responsible for that dysfunction. Its like hearing from a football player who played in the NFL for 10-15 years and now suffers from serious knee pain and always complaining about knee pain. Or the driver involved in a car accident who wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and now suffers from serious back or neck pain. I mean, what do they have to complain about? They knew the consequences for the decisions they made that lived up to their injuries. And if they didn’t, they are too stupid, drunk or high a combination of all of those factors for me to give a damn about.

American voters all the time in poll after poll say they disapprove of Congress and yet they reelect the same representatives and senators to represent them. So maybe it is that American voters actually like gridlock, but if you look at poll after poll there’s clearly a feeling in the country that Congress needs to act on a series of issues for the country. Like the economy, infrastructure, immigration just to use as examples, but they elect and reelect people who don’t seem to have any interest in addressing those issues. If you want someone to do something for you and you’re talking about politics, you vote for people who are actually interested in those concerns.

If you want Gridlock, vote for Joe and Marry Gridlock running for U.S. House or Senate or reelection to one of those chambers. Because they’ll be more than happy to keep their election promises. I mean seriously how hard is it to do nothing. Even someone in Congress can figure how to do that. You don’t get action on issues by voting for inaction. I know that sounds as obvious as the Earth is round or concrete is hard or the Chicago Cubs won’t win the World Series. But apparently we have millions if not tens of millions of voters who don’t seem to understand that.

We have a lot of people in Congress, especially in the Tea Party Republican Party who are really only there for one reason. To stop President Obama from doing anything, at least anything constructive. If they actually want to do anything, it is to repeal and sit on their ass’s, another way of saying repeal and replace. So if that is what you want, you might have a hundred people on Capitol Hill who’ll do exactly that for you, which again is nothing. Again, how hard is it to do that and if you are still thinking about that, you are too dumb to follow along even for the ride. And then non wonder why what ninety-percent of the members of Congress get reelected.

But if you want people to actually do things in Congress and address your issues, whatever the issues and if you’re a Democrat or Republican, then you need to vote for the people who’ll address those issues. I know, this sounds like basic common sense, but that is a big problem with America and Congress in particular. It is not the budget deficit that is such a huge problem right now, but the common sense deficit up there. Which is why not a lot gets done up there, but why are they there in the first place? Because the voters sent them there to represent them.

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The New Republic: Opinion: Brian Beutler: 2015 Congress Will Shake Up America’s Boring Politics: How Will a Party That Doesn’t Believe in Government Govern

Guess Who’s Running Congress

This post was originally posted at The New Democrat on Blogger

The New Republic: Opinion: Brian Beutler: 2015 Congress Will Shake Up America’s Boring Politics

Here is sort of what the lighter more positive side of a united Republican Congress at least for Democrats, but perhaps bad for the rest of the country.

A party that now doesn’t believe in government will somehow have to govern, at least at the legislative level. That means finding ways to fund things they don’t believe in. Because the President is still a Democrat, at least until Congressional Republicans finds a way to impeach and convict President Obama. And they’ll have to work together to make anything law really. Senate Republicans will have to work with Senate Democrats at least to pass just about anything that doesn’t have to do with the budget and appropriations. Unless Harry Reid and Senate Democrats take the cynical route and say, “you know what, go ahead and pass that, we won’t stop you, we’ll just use it against you and your vulnerable members in the election.”

America will truly get to see how divided and childish the Republican Party has become. With House Speaker John Boehner and new Senate Leader Mitch McConnell playing my too dads with their Tea Party anti-government children who hate school so much and just want to stay home and play video games and eat cookies. And mess around on their smart phones. While debating among themselves, especially in the Senate about whether they should vote on nominations to government agencies that they believe shouldn’t exist in the first place, or voting to eliminate those agencies all together.

Democrats at least in Congress will get the next two-years off and be able to plan their path back to power. With House and Senate Republicans giving them boatloads of material everyday and commercials to use against them in swing districts and swing states. And I’m thinking especially in Democratic leaning states like Illinois and Pennsylvania where Senator Mark Kirk and Senator Pat Toomey who both have been in Congress for a while, will have a choice to make. Figure out how to govern and make government work with a Democratic President and risk a Tea Party primary challenge. Or go with the Tea Party and put their reelection in jeopardy against a mainstream Democrat.

The good news for Democrats, is that now they get the ten-percent or so Congressional approval rating off of their backs and put it squarely on the shoulders of the Republican Party. With a divided Congress they couldn’t do that, because they were in the Congressional Leadership controlling the Senate. Now they are essentially along for the ride with 188 or so seats in the House in the next Congress and 45-46 seats in the Senate in the next Congress. With Congressional Republicans having clear majorities and responsibility to figure out how to govern. And to figure out how to govern with members who don’t believe in government. At least when it comes to the economy. Good luck GOP!
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Striker 1909: Video: Jeff Bridges With the Final Speech From The Contender

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This post was originally posted at The New Democrat on Blogger

Great speech from The Contender by Jeff Bridges who played the President in this movie. Not a very realistic scene as far as how they put the U.S. House chamber together for this joint session of Congress when the House and Senate come together to hear the President speak. With the Speaker of the House and the President or Pro Tempore sitting in big chairs just above the President as the President is speaking.

But still a good speech from the President saying that he won’t let a very partisan faction from the opposition in the House of Representatives derail his Vice Presidential nominee, Senator Lane Evans who just happens to be one of their Congressional colleagues, be defeated because of what may or may not happened in Senator Evans private life before coming to Congress. That the President wasn’t going to put up with this obstruction and he was going to fight for his nominee.

This was a very important scene and movie for this if only reason. Because it was about the Right to Privacy and that even public officials and even members of Congress and even members of Congress who appointed to the second highest office in the country, the Vice Presidency and it raised two very important questions. Do public officials and even members of Congress and even members of Congress who are appointed to high office have a Right to Privacy. And should our public officials be judged based on how they live their private lives or not.

U.S. Senator Lane Evans

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Paramount Movies: The Contender 2000- A Movie About the Right of Privacy For Public Officials

Gary Oldman

This post was originally posted at The New Democrat

The Contender movie from 2000 came about almost three years after the Monica Lewinski scandal broke and two years after President Clinton was impeached in the House on a party-line vote. President Clinton was actually mentioned in this movie, and about two years after the Clinton impeachment trial in the Senate I believe The Contender at least to some degree was influenced by the Lewinski scandal and the point that President Clinton was making.

President Clinton’s point being that his private life is just that and that even public officials elected officials president’s even have a Right to Privacy even as it relates to their sex life. And that if adultery is involved which it is in both cases that it’s between the adulterer, their family and the person the affair was with. Not 265-300M Americans as was the case back then and especially an opposition party that’s looking to embarrass the President or Vice President.

Or even bring the top leaders down, which was the case with the Lewinski scandal as well as in this movie. And it has Jeff Bridges who’s personally one of my favorite actors, especially for his great sense of humor. But he can also act, playing a President who’s wrapping up his presidency and looking to build his legacy. His Vice President just died in office and he has to fill that vacancy and basically has a choice between a popular Democratic Governor of Virginia GOV. Jack Hathaway played by a great character actor Bill Peterson. Famous for his role in CBS CSI. And a junior Senator from Ohio played by a very good actress Joan Allen. And these are the top two contenders for the Vice Presidency.

The President has to nominate a new Vice President and appoint them to both chambers of Congress because the House has an Advise and Consent role in nominating a new Vice President. And then you throw in the cast in the movie Jeff Bridges as the President, Sam Elliot as WH Chief of Staff, Saul Rubinek as WH Press Secretary, Joan Allen as Sen. Lane Evans nominee for Vice President. Gary Oldman as Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Bill Peterson as GOV. Jack Hathaway who wants to run for president and become vice president to help him with that.

Christian Slater who plays a freshmen Representative from Delaware who doesn’t like Sen. Evans because she used to be a Republican. And wants GOV. Hathaway to be Vice President. And actually works with the Chairman who presides over the Vice Presidential confirmation hearings for the House. To make sure that Sen. Evans does not get confirmed because the House Republicans of course see Sen. Evans as too liberal. So you have all these little side stories and motivations and everyone involved has stake in the game so to speak.

Joan Allen plays the first female nominee for Vice President in American history who has a wild history from college. And seen as someone who slept around and even had an affair with one of her friend’s husband played by Robin Thomas. Who she later marries and starts a family with. Sen. Evans is also the daughter of the former Governor of Ohio who’s a Republican, but supports his daughter’s nomination for Vice President. And the House Republicans and their special interest allies try to make the most of Sen. Evans private life to bring her down. So she doesn’t become Vice President of the United States one step away from the Presidency, great movie.

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Movie Clips: The American President, 1995- A Movie About Romance and Hardball Politics

This piece was originally posted at FRS Daily Press

If you’re someone whose a political junky such as myself and you love watching political movies and political documentaries, than The American President is a very good movie. Because it’s about a President who at the beginning of the movie is pretty popular and is going into to his reelection campaign having not finished his whole agenda that he ran on, trying to finish that agenda with a crime bill and an energy bill.

And they go into how he and the White House work with Congress to get the votes to pass that agenda and how they set up the staff to do that. And how they work with special interest groups to get the support for their energy bill. If you’re someone who like romantic comedy’s that aren’t predictable and cheesy and are clever. Than The American President is a good movie, because it’s about a President whose a widower and the single parent of a daughter who’s somewhat lonely.

President Andrew Shepard meets an environmental lobbyist by accident, walks in on a meeting she’s having with his Chief of Staff. And he asks her to be his date at the next state dinner and even the process he goes through to make that happen is interesting because he calls her up at home. And she thinks the President is one of her friends impersonating the President. And makes fun of him, but the President doesn’t give up and calls her back to convince her he’s the President. The American President has hardball politics, romance and political scandal in about 105 minutes. A little something for everybody.

President Andrew Shepard, with a name like that he must be from New England, but he’s the former Governor of Wisconsin played by Michael Douglas. And this is one of his best roles because you see his ability to act and I’m not a big fan of most of his movies, but I believe he’s a great actor and you see his funny side in the movie and he can be very funny as well. He’s no Danny DeVito, but he can more than hold his own in comedy. Again plays the President who’s somewhat popular going in heading into an election year with still a big agenda to pass, and meets this environmental lobbyist played by Annette Bening who doesn’t like President Shepard’s Energy bill and they talk about it.

And the President and the lobbyist (sounds like the title of a movie) make a deal that if she can land half of the votes in the House for the bill she wants, he’ll get the other half. And at the end of the meeting he asks her on a date. She doesn’t take him seriously, threatens the President that he has to come through, or the President will lose the support of her group. The President gets his date and they hit it off and start an affair that causes the President trouble politically as well as with his agenda.

Again The American President is a movie that has hardball politics, romance, and political scandal. With the romance and with Senate Minority Leader Bob Rumson who’s also running for President making everything he can out of this affair even calling Sydney Ellen Wade a whore on national TV. And running as the Religious Right candidate for President, the Champion of Traditional Values. Running against a Liberal Democrat and a card caring member of the ACLU. And the scene towards the end of the movie, the press conference makes the whole thing worth watching where he sums up the whole movie in about five minutes.

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Warner Vod: Advise and Consent 1962 Trailer- A Look at How the Presidential Nomination Process Works

Charles Laughton & Walter Pidgeon

This post was originally posted at FRS Daily Press

Advise and Consent was a movie about the presidential nomination process in the U.S. Senate and what presidential appointments are put through by senators both in the opposition, but also from senators who are at least inclined to vote for the nominee. Whether the nominee comes from their party or not. In this movie the party in power also has a majority of the Senate. But if you are familiar with American politics back in the 1960s, the parties back then weren’t always united ideologically. Which is one of the reasons why Henry Fonda who played the nominee for Secretary of State faced such a tough time.

This movie came out in 1962 and was based on current times and back then the Democratic Party controlled Congress as well as the White House, but had what was called a Southern Caucus made up of right-wing senators who didn’t vote with their Leadership on everything to put it mildly and would even vote with Senate Republicans to block legislation as well as presidential nominations from their own Leadership and this movie portrays that with Charles Laughton playing this Southern senator who was a right-winger and against his own President’s nomination for Secretary of State. Charles Laughton playing a character that reminds me of former Sen. Dick Russell of Georgia who was the Leader of the Southern Caucus in the 1960s.

Back in the early 1960s of course there wasn’t any cable TV or C-SPAN and Congress didn’t allow for broadcast media to broadcast what was going on in the House or Senate so a lot of Americans weren’t aware of even what the House and Senate looked like inside so this movie sort of opened that up for a lot of Americans. But Advise and Consent wasn’t just about the Senate nominating process as far as the Senate debating nominations there was a lot of inside Washington aspects of this movie of course, with the President played by Franchot Tote calling the Leader of the Senate played by Walter Pidgeon and then the Leader calling the Senate Minority Leader. To get and idea of how many Senate Republicans would vote for the nomination.

But there was also a look at what happened in Washington on the party scene, where members of Congress in both parties would get together, there was a playboy senator in the movie played by Peter Lawford who reminds me of Senator Jack Kennedy. There was a somewhat bored and lonely Vice President with not enough work to do, so he would spend his time actually presiding over the Senate played by Lew Ayers. Back then Vice President’s weren’t very powerful or important, of course that changed a long time ago where today they are basically the Chief Counsel of the Administration.

Advise and Consent was one of the first looks that Americans got to see in how the U.S. Senate operates and how they deal with the White House and how each caucus deals with each other and how the majority party deals with its own members and how the Senate Leader finds ways to get enough votes for the President’s nominations, as well as how Washington works. And is a very good movie, especially if you’re a political junky like myself, but an entertaining movie especially if you like dramas with great writing, cast and clever humor like myself as well.

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The Book Archive: Video: C-SPAN: Bill Clinton and Bill Maher at the 1995 Political Correspondents Dinner

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This post was originally posted at The New Democrat on Blogger

To write a blog about 1995 or even a satire about it I really have to go deep into my memory bank to remember what I think about that year. I was only nineteen at the time for most of that year. President Bill Clinton and Bill Maher touched on Vice President Al Gore’s reinventing government program that looked to save money in the Federal budget by making programs work better and consolidation. The OJ Simpson murder trial of course was big and if you watched anything on cable news that year, you would think that was the only story that year.

House Republicans wanted to gut PBS which the President touched on by saying that “PBS could only afford to send Jim Leher and not Robert McNeil because of the budget cuts”. They were the co-hosts of the PBS NewsHour in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. The 1996 presidential campaign was already going on with Bob Dole the Leader of the Senate already the GOP frontrunner for president. And the Leader proposing to move Congress’s Senate sessions up to New Hampshire and Iowa so Leader Dole wouldn’t have to fly back to Washington as much.

I could go into the government shutdown that happened in the fall of 1995, the Oklahoma City bombing that happened in April 1995, but those things happened after this dinner and the people who performed that night performed before those events happened, so I’m not going to go into that. But just the first few months of 1995 with a brand new Republican Congress the first one since 1953 and House Republicans donating their lives to passing their Contract For America, you knew this was going to be a fascinating year.

Comedian in Chief

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