Bobby Kennedy

fada

With all the talk at the minute of Obama and McCain it got me thinking how would America have changed if Bobby had lived post 68?
Would he firstly have got the presidency? I know that he was very popular and had alot of different agenda's to what was the norm at the time.


Would he have become as loved as JFK?

angelica

fada wrote:

With all the talk at the minute of Obama and McCain it got me thinking how would America have changed if Bobby had lived post 68?
Would he firstly have got the presidency? I know that he was very popular and had alot of different agenda's to what was the norm at the time.


Would he have become as loved as JFK?

Moreso. I love Bobby! He was an idealist.

DriftingByTheStorm

I think Bobby was actually MORE loved than his brother.
John is just more of a "legend", i guess.

If the Kennedys had lived (both of them), the world would be unimaginably different.

What they stood for

Don't forget that Bobby was all about some getting rid of corruption. Particularly, he wanted to wipe out the mob influence in America.

angelica

DriftingByTheStorm wrote:

I think Bobby was actually MORE loved than his brother.
John is just more of a "legend", i guess.

If the Kennedys had lived (both of them), the world would be unimaginably different.

What they stood for

That was beautiful. Thank-you for sharing that.

Don't forget that Bobby was all about some getting rid of corruption. Particularly, he wanted to wipe out the mob influence in America.

I used to read any and all books about the Kennedys and I was always in love with Bobby for his idealist drive to wipe out corruption.

Piper At The Gates

Just think what things could have been like if both Bobby AND Martin Luther King had lived. This world would be a much better place.
Bobby would have won that election in 68. He would have wiped Dick Nixon off the map. People felt that JFK had so much unfinished business and they wanted RFK to finish it. The whole political paradigm change at the Ambassador Hotel that night.

digster

Personally, I feel that the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968 was one of the most destructive acts of American history in its' recent history. RFK had somewhat radical ideas, particularly in the current political paradigm of relative 'socialism.' But he brought new, fantastic, radical ideas to a country sorely in need of them at the time of his presidential run. I only can imagine the change he would have enacted had he run and asserted his considerable influence, and even more had he run in 1968. It is heartbreaking to imagine the pain this country might have been able to avoid had RFK won our highest office.

A great quote; I've been reading about RFK quite a bit recently, particularly in regards to the Bill of Rights, as I'm considering becoming a constitutional law professor. Read this entry into the Wikipedia entry of RFK's political positions regarding his presidency; I am assuming they are accurate.

"Robert Kennedy expressed the Administration's commitment civil rights during a 1961 speech at the University of Georgia Law School: "We will not stand by or be aloof. We will move. I happen to believe that the 1954 Supreme Court school desegregation decision was right. But my belief does not matter. It is the law. Some of you may believe the decision was wrong. That does not matter. It is the law." "

My goodness. He had such a fidelity to the law that his sole justification to the Civil Rights justification was not that it was moral in its' premise, but that it was the law. His undying attempt to frame the social commitments of this nation in the confines and expansive confines of the law on the books were some of the most incredible and surprising aspects of Robert Kennedy when I've studied him. He considered care for those downtrodden in our nation not only a moral, but a legal necessity. I only wish he'd lived longer to continue upon this path.

PJ_Lukin

I actually met Bobby Kennedy when I was a little kid. My family has been involved in local Democratic politics for my whole life. Bobby was running for US Senator from New York when I met him. He took the time to lean down to talk to me for a minute. I remember that he patted my head as he walked away.

I always felt that he was the one who could have changed the course of the country. He was tough as nails, very intelligent and compassionate to a fault.

Piper At The Gates

digster wrote:

Personally, I feel that the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968 was one of the most destructive acts of American history in its' recent history. RFK had somewhat radical ideas, particularly in the current political paradigm of relative 'socialism.' But he brought new, fantastic, radical ideas to a country sorely in need of them at the time of his presidential run. I only can imagine the change he would have enacted had he run and asserted his considerable influence, and even more had he run in 1968. It is heartbreaking to imagine the pain this country might have been able to avoid had RFK won our highest office.

A great quote; I've been reading about RFK quite a bit recently, particularly in regards to the Bill of Rights, as I'm considering becoming a constitutional law professor. Read this entry into the Wikipedia entry of RFK's political positions regarding his presidency; I am assuming they are accurate.

"Robert Kennedy expressed the Administration's commitment civil rights during a 1961 speech at the University of Georgia Law School: "We will not stand by or be aloof. We will move. I happen to believe that the 1954 Supreme Court school desegregation decision was right. But my belief does not matter. It is the law. Some of you may believe the decision was wrong. That does not matter. It is the law." "

My goodness. He had such a fidelity to the law that his sole justification to the Civil Rights justification was not that it was moral in its' premise, but that it was the law. His undying attempt to frame the social commitments of this nation in the confines and expansive confines of the law on the books were some of the most incredible and surprising aspects of Robert Kennedy when I've studied him. He considered care for those downtrodden in our nation not only a moral, but a legal necessity. I only wish he'd lived longer to continue upon this path.

I could not agree with you more, except I don't think his ideas were radical for the time, but more progressive, given what has happened in the 40 years since his death. I also think that if you admire his fidelity to the law and his care for society's downtrodden, you will probably make a very good constitutional law professor.

angelica

Piper At The Gates wrote:

I also think that if you admire his fidelity to the law and his care for society's downtrodden, you will probably make a very good constitutional law professor.

I agree! I was going to say the same!

Harmony

DriftingByTheStorm wrote:

I think Bobby was actually MORE loved than his brother.
John is just more of a "legend", i guess.

If the Kennedys had lived (both of them), the world would be unimaginably different.

What they stood for

Don't forget that Bobby was all about some getting rid of corruption. Particularly, he wanted to wipe out the mob influence in America.

LOL

It was with the HELP of the mob that his brother got elected president and himself attorney general. It was also the mob that used to bring prostitutes to the white house for ole jacky boy to play with and god knows what else the mob did for the Kennedy's and the Kennedys for the mob. Not to mention the deep rooted connection to the mob daddy Kennedy had during his rum running days where the kenedys got all there money from. Oh sure, ole bobby was all about going after the mob but after is served his family's purposes. Many people believe it was bobby's crackdown on the mob that got Jack killed.

It was JFK that got us into Vietnam and to the brink of nuclear war with Russia. Not to mention the bay of pigs in which he strung along thousands of Cubans and then abandoned them to be slaughtered (another theory as to what got Jack killed).

Yes the world would have been different if they both lived, can not argue with that.

AllNiteThing

Harmony wrote:

LOL

It was with the HELP of the mob that his brother got elected president and himself attorney general. It was also the mob that used to bring prostitutes to the white house for ole jacky boy to play with and god knows what else the mob did for the Kennedy's and the Kennedys for the mob. Not to mention the deep rooted connection to the mob daddy Kennedy had during his rum running days where the kenedys got all there money from. Oh sure, ole bobby was all about going after the mob but after is served his family's purposes. Many people believe it was bobby's crackdown on the mob that got Jack killed.

It was JFK that got us into Vietnam and to the brink of nuclear war with Russia. Not to mention the bay of pigs in which he strung along thousands of Cubans and then abandoned them to be slaughtered (another theory as to what got Jack killed).

Yes the world would have been different if they both lived, can not argue with that.

Someone had to say it. That said, JFK was much less destructive than LBJ and even worse, Nixon, to this country. Unfortunately almost all politicians that can make it to the top will continue this country's policies of military and economic hegemony, rather than a true progressive, alternative approach. While I fully support Obama and hope he will make a radical change from the Bush doctrine, I'm realistic to know he won't change enough of what needs to be done.

It would have been interesting to see RFK and what he could have done. IMO, he would have been better than JFK.

catefrances

robert kennedy would have been the best president the united states ever had.

fada

What do people here think of the movie "bobby" that came out a few years back?

angelica

fada wrote:

What do people here think of the movie "bobby" that came out a few years back?

I didn't see it! Do you recommend it? Was it 'accurate'?

Pacomc79

I think you have to go 100 years further back, to the middle 1860's.

If Abraham Lincoln lives, the reconstruction of the south is done much differently. Many of those issues that have led to issues of this day come from the errors and failures in the reconstruction and subsequent events thereafter.

catefrances

angelica wrote:

I didn't see it! Do you recommend it? Was it 'accurate'?

well... in the end he was shot dead, so yeah id say it was accurate.

it wasnt so much about bobby kennedy as about various people who were at the ambassador hotel that day. what they were doing, why they were there. what kennedy meant to them blah blah blah. some of them worked for kennedy. some of them worked at the hotel. some were supporters.