Sadly, this one was pretty boring and I found it hard to dredge through even though it is 158 pages. You'd think a mixed bag guy like Kennedy would have mustered some more interest for the author, but apparently not. And much like the American Presidents book on McKinley, the author barely mentions "oh yeah, he got assassinated" and then continued to bore me. Oh well (sigh).
The few interesting bits:
- Quote from Kennedy while in the hospital yet again: "I'm still eating peas and corn for breakfast and I had an enemy given by a beautiful blonde. That, my sweet, is the height of cheap thrills."
- Quote from the Harvard admissions committee: he has superior mental ability without deep interest in his studies, and "He can be relied upon to do enough to pass." By all means, please let this man in!
- Getting diagnosed with Addison's disease finally (apparently it's a hard one to pin down) finally managed to lessen all of his random issues, once he started being successfully treated for it. So, good on him there. Then again, all the cortisol treatments make you horny, baby.... but he already was, so what's the difference? And his back pain was so bad that several Secret Service agents and one doctor thought he'd be in a wheelchair if he had a second term.
- Kennedy thought his first year in office was a disaster and when a reporter said he wanted to write a book about it, said in reply, "Who would want to read a book about disasters?"
- On civil rights, the book claims he was a supporter of them for most of his political career, even though he couldn't do much about it in Congress in the 50's. Once in the White House, he pulled back on the issue for the most part and just did small steps here and there like with regards to jobs in the government. He was pretty irritated with the Freedom Rides and how they would interfere with him working with Southerners in Congress, and kept trying to get others to stop them. When asked to desegregate all public accommodations, he snapped, "What in the world does he think I should do? I've done more for civil rights than any President in American history. How could any man have done more than I've done?" Ummmmmm..... He also wanted Sammy Davis Jr. and his white Swedish wife out of the White House and not to be photographed there. This made Jackie cry. The book says that by 1963, he was committed to ending segregation, though.
- Famous last words: "We're heading into nut country today. But Jackie, if somebody wants to shoot at me from a window with a rifle, nobody can stop him so why worry about it?" DAAAAAAAAAAAAMN.
In the end, the author concurs that what stands out about him was the potential future of him that was ended.
Two and a half stars.
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