There was that great story about an up-and-coming sailor in the war. Big family name, horrible accident while out at sea and a heroic struggle for survival. It was good enough to make a movie. The man was good enough to write a book, Profiles in Courage and found himself elected to both the U.S. House and, soon the Senate.

John Kennedy was going places and you didn't have to look long to know it. He had the name and good looks, sure, but he had the optimism for the future and signalled a new era in American politics.

He was elected in 1961, urged America to the moon, had those frightening dealings with the Cubans and founded the Peace Corps. He pushed us a little harder into Vietnam, was a Berliner for a day and even dabbled in Iraq.

He moved for tax cuts which would come in the next administration and pushed forward school integration at the University of Misssissippi and the University of Alabama. After that came one of his finer speeches. Later he'd propose much of what would become the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

And then came that fall day in Dallas, when the new generation grew up through the chaos and the accompanying scandal.

He did all that, good and bad, with Camelot and the various rumors surrounding it, in three years. What might have happened had he been able to run for re-election?

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