showed up. joining me now, presidential historian michael beschloss. he s written nine books including presidential courage and larry sabato, author of the kennedy half century. michael, as we look back at the kennedy legacy in an article that politico has out, it says five decades later as debates about kennedy s use or misuse of presidential power and the gulf between his private recklessness rumble on, it is the hope that inspired that lingers. the article goes on to recall caroline kennedy endorsed barack obama back in 2008. do you think in our political climate, in this climate that we have lost track of that hope, of that optimism that surrounded president kennedy? i think we have. in fact there was a doonesbury cartoon that had something reading ask not what your country can do for you. a lot of kids were laughing and
the third frame, someone was saying what s happened to us. so when we look at the time of where we ve gone over the last five decades, we have a very interesting piece on msnbc.com that really breaks down what life was like before jfk and the assassination, some of the highlights being that a stamp cost 5 cents, minimum wage was $1.25 an hour, the average family income was $6200 but cut that in half for nonwhite families. martin luther king had just given his i have a dream speech three months earlier. larry, in writing your book, what did you come away with by thinking jfk as a civil rights leader on the social justice front 50 years ago and where we are today with many of the same conversations? well, as i m sure michael will agree, we tend to misremember the past. especially when an administration ends as tragically as john kennedy s did. look, he had many strong points, and i ve tried to stress them in the kennedy half century but i
wrong. i have to ask you very fast, what do you believe? i like the i believe lee harvey oswald shot and killed president kennedy and wounded governor connolly because he was killed 48 hours after the assassination, chuck, we will never know whether anybody encouraged him or supplied him with information that assisted him in pulling off the assassination. and that leads us to our other riddle and of course none of us can ever get our arms around and that is jack ruby. we veal to leave that for another day. the book is the kennedy half century. larry sabato, congratulations. thanks for being on the show. be right back with a special the daily rundown look at lincoln s gettysburg and my tuesday take-away on health care. first, the white house soup of the day, very thanksgiving-y. butternut squash.
medicare. he hopes after a substantial re-election against barry goldwater, he would be able to get the civil rights bill and medicare and other things. he never had the chance. so president obama has had the chance that president kennedy didn t, but there are so many parallels there. kennedy and obama both broke a big barrier. one on catholicism, the other on race. they were both short-termers in the senate who really didn t care that much about senate service. they were both distinguished authors who had sold a lot of books and gotten a lot of praise for their writing ahead of being elected. we all remember that president obama might not be president today had he not been endorsed by 10 kedany and caroline kennedy right before super tuesday. that helped him gain that little edge in delegates that enabled him to beat hillary clinton in 2008. the name of your book is called the kennedy half
we re back. there s been a lot of attention paid to jack kennedy as we approach the 50th anniversary of his tragic death next friday. that day in dallas made an indelible mark on our country, i can tell you. we all know it. but all know it. but unlike the abrut end of his presidency, his impact was felt for years. it could be felt by his nine predecessors in office from lbj to president obama. larry sab atoe explores his lasting experience in his new book the kennedy half century. he joins us now. just to make the point, make the point of how kennedy, i know i agree with you, has had an influence that has gone well beyond his short time in office. chris, it was really remarkable. most of this book is about his legacy and we looked at it in two different ways. we scoured the presidential record for kennedy s nine successors in the white house from lbj to obama, and we found that kennedy was the most cited