What makes a great politician?

[JMadonna]

(12-20-2017 02:07 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Eva - I'm a product of the Kennedy era and was invigorated by Jack, Jackie, the kids, and Bobby and sister Eunice (not so much by others in the family). He also surrounded himself with some savvy people. At least for me, they had the charisma to make us believe in ourselves.

Would the President have been able to achieve his goals if he had lived? I have my doubts for a number of reasons, such as outside forces working against him, his father's reputation, and in some respects his not knowing where the skeletons were hidden!

For example, I don't think he could have pushed through the civil rights programs. It took a good old Southern manipulator like LBJ to do that. He'd been in politics long enough to know where weak spots were in the legislators and how to push just the right buttons. Yet, implementing his legislation was still difficult, and Vietnam was his death knell.

As for the recently departed President Obama, I have to admit that the first time I heard him speak, I was impressed. But then I asked myself who was he and how did he seem to pop up out of thin air. I did some investigating and became concerned about a lack of experience, the fact that few knew anything about him, his backers, his mother, etc.

He talked a good game, but I doubted his ability to lead and deliver. This is strictly my personal opinion, but I think my impression as to the quality of leadership he could provide was accurate. Perhaps, in 1960, if I had had a lot more experience and maturity, I would have thought the same about John F. Kennedy... But, there was a certain fire and polish in JFK that I never saw in the now-past administration. It boiled down to TRUST. And that's something that I'm finding it very hard to place in the current political world.

Now, y'all can go ahead and blacklist me.

I agree with Gene about the politics of fear and your assessment of the differences in the Obama and Kennedy administrations.

Another important aspect of being a politician is control of the message. Although the press overlooked his sexual peccadilloes, Kennedy did not have complete control of the media that Obama did, hence he had to continually make his position clear whenever he could.

Obama knew that he would not be challenged by the the media so he could get away with anything. If someone outside the media challenged him the race card would come out along with the politics of fear.