This week's edition of Time Magazine is "The 6th Annual Making of America Issue." Previous MoAs have focused on Lewis & Clark, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abe Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt. So which American History great did they focus on this week? King Andrew Jackson? Diplomat to the world Woodrow Wilson? I hear FDR did some notable things. Perhaps James K. Polk, Napoleon of the Stump?

Oh, fuck everybody. It's JFK.

I am not a huge JFK fan. He's on average ranked our 6th best president of the 20th century in a field of 17. It's hard to say he should be much further down. It's hard to say that his abbreviated presidency makes him less influential by default than, say, Carter or Hoover. But I've always been more of an LBJ man, Think that among assassinated Presidents Kennedy was only marginally more attractive than Bill McKinley, and, I mean, come on. Grover Fucking Cleveland (Benjamin Harrison was notorious for his promiscuity).

After reading this article, my rankings remain unchanged. However, the article offers a perspective on JFK I wasn't aware of - namely, his commitment to peace that could have easily improved that status of the Cold War. Apparently, Khrushchev broke down in tears upon learning of his assassination, and was immobilized for days. Despite the Bay of Pigs, Castro never blamed the Kennedys for the assassination plots against him. JFK opened a peace channel to Castro to ward the end of his administration.

I can imagine that had JFK lived out the rest of his term, perhaps we would have avoided a big chunk of Vietnam, maybe even the latter half of the Cold War. I could even believe that his extended presidency could have stunted the neocon movement that's been decimating the country for the last quarter century (isn't that what it is, Star Wars and all this post-Soviet fearmongering?)

It's to the point where it's sort of trite to have an opinion on JFK. I'm coming around on him. I don't think he was a great president, but he could have been. After all, two-term presidents get chapters, and one-term presidents get paragraphs.

Also in that issue: a decent article about JFK and Civil Rights, and a bunch of fluff bullshit on Kennedy and religion, golf, assassination conspiracy theories, public service, and the part about his presidency that pisses me off the most - his "effortless American style." In short, everything I expected to read.

GRANT QUOTE TUESDAYS:

I know only two tunes: one of them is 'Yankee Doodle', and the other one isn't.

Labels: john f. kennedy, presidents, time magazine, ulysses s. grant