Sunday, July 25, 2004
I have forgotten which of my blogs my lbj notes have gone in, but i thought i'd mention what i'm reading. A bio of jfk (the orginal, not the re-run) focusing on his pre-presidential years.
Stuff I didn't know:
Major health problems affected his drive and personality, in a way that invites comparison to fdr. wonder if anyone has written a book about the medical status of presidents. i know there are issues with lincoln, fdr, jfk, lbj, nixon, regan, bush one and bush two.
he had, from birth, a bad back, which he made worse by not taking it easy. stomach trouble.
physical abuse from older brother. domineering father who he spent his life trying to live up to.
strong family support for each other. retarded sister kept secret. public perception of family manipulated - they had their own pr guy (flack) on staff. e.g. jfk did not attend london school of economics as resume says - he wanted to but was sick that year. traveled to berlin and italy, confrontations with nazis. he worked for naval intelligence and missed pearl harbor - no direct support for idea he was in the secret. on the other hand they knew the negotiations were fake and war as coming. he used family connections to get drafted, in spite of medical condition. reverse of bush-type allegations. he was actively pro-draft, although he himself waited till classes were over after being called up. took a political science class at harvard, learned to
analyse congresscritters - how do they vote, what bills do they pass, what speaches they make, etc. from that class, he learned the basics of vote counting, if not to the extent that lbj learned at his daddy's knee.* so he has an eastern establishment scholarly approach to the game. it was his mother's father who mayor of boston, not father's father. father's father was an alderman type.
after pearl harbor, he got the pt boat gig, that's as far as i've gotten.
*we are not told if lbj was one of those studied.
Stuff I didn't know:
Major health problems affected his drive and personality, in a way that invites comparison to fdr. wonder if anyone has written a book about the medical status of presidents. i know there are issues with lincoln, fdr, jfk, lbj, nixon, regan, bush one and bush two.
he had, from birth, a bad back, which he made worse by not taking it easy. stomach trouble.
physical abuse from older brother. domineering father who he spent his life trying to live up to.
strong family support for each other. retarded sister kept secret. public perception of family manipulated - they had their own pr guy (flack) on staff. e.g. jfk did not attend london school of economics as resume says - he wanted to but was sick that year. traveled to berlin and italy, confrontations with nazis. he worked for naval intelligence and missed pearl harbor - no direct support for idea he was in the secret. on the other hand they knew the negotiations were fake and war as coming. he used family connections to get drafted, in spite of medical condition. reverse of bush-type allegations. he was actively pro-draft, although he himself waited till classes were over after being called up. took a political science class at harvard, learned to
analyse congresscritters - how do they vote, what bills do they pass, what speaches they make, etc. from that class, he learned the basics of vote counting, if not to the extent that lbj learned at his daddy's knee.* so he has an eastern establishment scholarly approach to the game. it was his mother's father who mayor of boston, not father's father. father's father was an alderman type.
after pearl harbor, he got the pt boat gig, that's as far as i've gotten.
*we are not told if lbj was one of those studied.
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