in congress unless they provide universal healthcare to their constituents that pay for theirs.

There was a guy the average citizen could have respect in. He was in office for only two years and eleven months. Call me sensitive or sentimental but I can not get past losing him. When he was assassinated it sent this country into a bad way.

But he wasn't popular when he was President.

with Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama.

His biggest slip came between February and October 1963 and support for Civil Rights was apparently the cause of it. Per Pew Research:

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/11/20/jfks-america/

I didn't say he was disliked or had high disapproval ratings. I said he wasn't that popular.

You mention Goldwater. I wasn't speaking of his winning. He won by quite a bit, didn't he? But during his short Presidency. You say yourself that he had a 44% approval near the end. Which is about half of his Presidency.

But I haven't looked it up lately.

I recall from early reading and documentaries that he was criticized quite a bit for how he handled the Bay of Pigs. Although things up well, and he handled it well, according to some...he didn't go far enough, for others. Russia put their missiles in Cuba, aimed at the U.S. He got an agreement for htem to turn their missiles away, but not to remove them. He was criticized for that.

I'll have to read up on his Presidency. It's been a while.

Okay...just looked it up. He had historically high approval ratings that first year. It went almost steadily downward from there, ending at...I found 50+% approval, but you say 44%..whichever is correct. So that's why my mother said that. That's what she would remember, since that was the most recent feelings of him, at the time of his assassination. There is a difference between "not that popular" and being UNpopular. She and I said he wasn't "that popular," compared to the way some may think he was popular. People have a tendency to exaggerate things after someone is tragically killed.

We lived in the south, so her perception would come from our living in the deep south. She had no opinion of him herself, I think. She was the most apolitical person I've ever known.

Last edited Mon Jul 30, 2018, 08:24 PM - Edit history (1)

In October 1963. Outside of that area it was still well above 60% and at 59% overall.

An unpopular president is not going to get approval ratings as high as JFK did.

I said "he wasn't that popular." Not the same thing.

And yes...for the last year and a half, his approval rating was declining...not as popular as people think he was. "Not that popular." Doesn't mean he wasn't popular at all.

He had really high ratings that first year, though. Super high. Still above average the last year.

Over the whole of his presidency, Kennedy averaged a 70.1 percent approval rating, comfortably the highest of any post-World War II president. By comparison, the average for all presidents between 1938 and 2012 is 54 percent.1

Selfie taken in mirror by Jacqueline Kennedy (born 89 years ago yesterday) with Ethel Kennedy and JFK:

He had very high approval ratings the first year. It started declining after that. Before he was assassinated, his approval rating was about 58%...slightly above average.

His highest was about 83%, which is really unbelievable, and for the first year averaged about 75%. Almost all presidents dip after the 1st year as the honeymoon period begins to wear off.

No one uses "average" to describe approval ratings of Presidents. They note the high and the low. An average is meaningless.

It may have made Americans healthier, and kept health costs in check that way. And kept the profit motive from driving costs up.