re: #10 Barefoot Grin

re: #8 Shiplord Kirel, live from behind wingnut lines

If JFK had been that stupid we wouldn’t be here.

Gives pause for thought.

While it has generally been overlooked by the passage of time (beginning with the post-Dallas “Camelot” mythologizing) ISTR that one of the recurring contemporary criticisms of John Kennedy as a politician (and, to a degree, as President) was that - Harvard education aside - he really wasn’t all that “smart”; and that his main gift(s) as a public figure were - besides his family money and connections - a notable ability to construct, polish and control his public image: a knack which would pay off way more in the Age of Television than it might have in prior eras.
Of course, JFK was “smarter” in numerous ways than Donald Trump (low bar, etc., I know), but at least Kennedy knew enough to surround himself with - and listen to, when necessary - people who may have been smarter than him: the Kennedy WH was often criticized for its odd mix of personnel: liberal Harvard intellectuals and old-time Boston-Irish pols; but at least they were not the toxic gang of ego-fluffing hacks, toadies, neofascists and entitled relatives we have nowadays.