Well, he couldn't...Willis Reed's knee was torn up! My list: RFK MLK Sam Rayburn Kinky Friedman ...and, of course....
RFK is the most interesting whatif, and i agree he would have beaten nixon. RFK also seems like, potentially, a better president than his brother, whose rep is perhaps inflated due to his iconic status and tragic death. by the same token however, RFK's own legend was influenced by his brother's death, and his own assasination. completely agree with Deck's point above however about what we lost in '68. truly a pivotal moment in american history. one wonders if King and RFK had lived would they have been able to channel some of the incredible energy of the boomers away from self-indulgence towards real social change. or would MLK have just turned into jesse jackson?
Clay's stature was never the same after he put his support for J. Q. Adams for the presidency in a deadlock. At the time, there wasn't a majority in the electoral college for Clay, Adams, and Andy Jackson, so the House voted. After Clay's support, Adams gave him the Secretary of State position, which at the time was assumed as a stepping stone to presidency. Gore thought he had it bad... He placed third then, and really didn't have a chance to become president. Clay came from a Southern state, but strongly supported the dissolution of slavery. This made him a tweener, where he couldn't be trusted by the South because he didn't own any slaves and by the North because he was pigeon-holed as a slave owner.
Exactly. I'm an optimist about it. I think Dr. King would laugh at what Jesse has morphed into, and I think Robert may have made a better President than his brother. It was LBJ who took JFK's ideas and actually got much of it done. One has to wonder if JFK could have done the same, and I'm a huge admirer. Bobby Kennedy had such enormous potential. There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not? What is objectionable, what is dangerous about extremists, is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents. Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total; of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don't. And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity. But suppose God is black? What if we go to Heaven and we, all our lives, have treated the Negro as an inferior, and God is there, and we look up and He is not white? What then is our response? I believe that, as long as there is plenty, poverty is evil. I thought they'd get one of us, but Jack, after all he's been through, never worried about it. I thought it would be me. Quotes of Bobby Kennedy... Keep D&D Civil.
TO BILL BRASKY!!! "Did I ever tell you about the time Brasky went hunting? Brasky decides he's going to hunt down all four of the Banana Splits. He stalks and kills every one of them with a machette. They all begged for their lives...except Fleagle." "Brasky's family crest is a picture of a baracudda eating Neil Armstrong." "We once had a bachelor party for Brasky. He ate the entire cake before we could tell him there was a stripper in it." "Brasky's semen can form into a liquid human - like the guy from 'Terminator 2'" "He framed Roger Rabbit." "It was the sight of Brasky's naked body that drove Brian Wilson insane." "Bill Brasky had a four day heart attack...a day for each chamber. At the autopsy, they said his heart looked like a basketball filled with riccotta cheese." http://www.wattfarm.com/blog/archives/000301.html
Not my job. I've already decided to just put a period after that line I put at the bottom of each post. Saves me a couple of keystrokes. If someone wants to use that quote of Bobby Kennedy as a sig, however, it would be a good one. A nice reminder for all of us, from a great man cut down far too young. My signature has personal meaning for me. It was a favorite saying of someone I was close to who passed away a long time ago. I've always felt that the dead remain living, in a way, if we continue to keep their memory alive as best we can. It's something an agnostic can believe in. Keep D&D Civil.
He gave me some money once, promised to keep giving for four years. Then he took it away for bad reasons. I am apathetic. I think RFK is #1 as far as having the chance to actually become president and also being the best "never became). There is zero chance (in my opinion) that he would not have been way better than JFK. Better than just about anybody.
i think this is a common misconception of us agnostics, that there's no spiritual dimension to our world view. for instance, i believe there are definitely forces of good and evil at work in the world. just not sure either needs to be worshiped or even that they would expect/demand it.
Pardon me for not getting on the RFK bandwagon but I think the Kennedys were extremely overrated. IMO if JFK had lived he would've gone down as one of our worst Presidents. RFK I think was more capable than JFK but still had a lot of problems and don't think would've been a good administrator or been able to get a lot passed. Nixon was corrupt and a liar but he was a good administrator and got a lot passed. I think Martin Luther King is a true great American but I don't think he would've made a great president. Idealism is great but not necessarily what you want as a president. IMO there needs to be some hard headed pragmatism to be able to deal with all of the conflicting demands of the office. That's why I think that even though Carter is a great person he made a poor president. Although this might come off as heresy I don't think MLK's legacy would be as great if he had lived and I think that he would come to be seen much like the way Jesse Jackson is. People criticize Jesse for coming off as an opportunists but forget that MLK also would show up to take advantage of controversial incidents. Jesse Jackson is a disciple of MLK and largely learned his political strategy from MLK. I have no doubt that if MLK had lived he would've done many of the things that Jesse Jackson has done and been criticized for. MLK as the great moral voice of Selma and Birmingham certainly would've been remembered but if he lived we would also be talking about him protesting against abortion, taking a stand on keeping Terry Schiavo alive, getting involved with the Rodney King situation and accusing FEMA of racism for their slow response for Katrina. The major figure of the 60's who I think might've proven to be a much greater leader and pivotal figure is Malcolm X. His movement toward moderation and introspection near the end of his life might've done a lot to heal race relations in the way that only Nixon could go to China. Also since he left the Nation of Islam and became a more traditional Muslim might've played a huge role in all of the political problems that we've faced with Islamic world. Also his tough message of economic self sufficiency might've have done much to dispel the continuing stereotype of African Americans as being wards of the state. I think if Malcolm X had lived he would've greatly changed race relations and our relations with the Islamic world.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley is a good read. His switch to mainstream Islam is too often forgotten by history and overlooked by his more militant Nation days. "Malcolm X - the only man in America capable of starting and ending a race riot."
