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I can't address how FDR was regarded "in advance," obviously, but you are quite wrong about JFK. I was a very little boy, but I remember our neighbors, who were like grandparents to me, going to the convention as strong supporters of some other candidate, and coming back in love with Kennedy. He definitely had an aura about him that was as important as anything he did. He stood for youth and hope and new possibilities in people's minds, just as Obama does. You may dismiss all that as style without substance, but one of the important functions of the Presidency is symbolic. Inspiration can do more for a country than all the policies and experience in the world. Kennedy gave this country a vision of itself as sophisticated, cultured, highly capable, daring and strong.
The truth is, Kennedy wasn't a particularly good President, per se. But what he stood for was very important, and that made him the right man at that time. And the disintegration of society that followed his assasination says it all about how vital symbolism can be.
In the sixties, it was not at all uncommon to see pictures of JFK hanging in people's living rooms. Maybe that seems "cultish" to a more cynical generation, but believe me, that devotion only led to good things for America.
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