JFK's Final Days: November 15, 1963
November 15, 1963 (50 years ago today) was another busy day for President John F. Kennedy. He began the day with a meeting with Henry Luce, the publisher of Time and Life magazines. He complained to Luce that his magazines were biased against his administration, despite the fact that they were often filled with flattering photos of him and the first lady. That afternoon he spoke at a convention of the AFL-CIO, and boasted about how the average factory worker was making $10 a week more than at the time of Kennedy's inauguration and how a 5.5% unemployment rate would improve even more if his proposed tax cuts were passed. The speech covered a variety of other subjects, including peace through strength and civil rights.
Later that day he spoke at another convention, this one of the Catholic Youth Organization. After the speech, he flew to Palm Beach, Florida. On the flight he became upset with Senator George Smathers, who asked about a rumor that JFK intended to drop Lyndon Johnson from the Democratic ticket in the 1964 election. In his recent book entitled JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President, author Thurston Clarke writes, at pages 303-3:
When Smathers remarked offhandedly, "Everyone on the hill is saying that Bobby is trying to knock Johnson off the ticket," Kennedy's denial was so vehement that the comment had obviously struck a nerve. "George, I presume you have some intelligence," he said sarcastically. "I love this job, I love every second of it." Why then, he asked, would he risk it by picking a fight with Johnson that might guarantee him losing all of the southern states? And if he dropped Johnson now, when his protege Bobby Baker was in the headlines, it would appear that he had some kind of involvement in the Baker scandal that he wanted to conceal. And if that happened, he predicted, "Life magazine would put twenty-seven pictures of these lovely looking, buxom ladies running around with no clothes on, twenty-seven pictures of Bobby Baker and hoodlums and vending machines, and then the last picture would be of me. And it would say 'Mess in Washington under Kennedy Regime,'" and then 99 percent of Americans would conclude that he was running around with the girls. (He had forgotten, or decided to overlook that Smathers was a regular at Baker's Quorum Club, and had known many of these "buxom ladies.")
Later that day he spoke at another convention, this one of the Catholic Youth Organization. After the speech, he flew to Palm Beach, Florida. On the flight he became upset with Senator George Smathers, who asked about a rumor that JFK intended to drop Lyndon Johnson from the Democratic ticket in the 1964 election. In his recent book entitled JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President, author Thurston Clarke writes, at pages 303-3:
When Smathers remarked offhandedly, "Everyone on the hill is saying that Bobby is trying to knock Johnson off the ticket," Kennedy's denial was so vehement that the comment had obviously struck a nerve. "George, I presume you have some intelligence," he said sarcastically. "I love this job, I love every second of it." Why then, he asked, would he risk it by picking a fight with Johnson that might guarantee him losing all of the southern states? And if he dropped Johnson now, when his protege Bobby Baker was in the headlines, it would appear that he had some kind of involvement in the Baker scandal that he wanted to conceal. And if that happened, he predicted, "Life magazine would put twenty-seven pictures of these lovely looking, buxom ladies running around with no clothes on, twenty-seven pictures of Bobby Baker and hoodlums and vending machines, and then the last picture would be of me. And it would say 'Mess in Washington under Kennedy Regime,'" and then 99 percent of Americans would conclude that he was running around with the girls. (He had forgotten, or decided to overlook that Smathers was a regular at Baker's Quorum Club, and had known many of these "buxom ladies.")