University Daily Kansan
Page 3
Friday, Nov. 8, 1963
JFK-Three Years After His Election
WASHINGTON —(UPI)—Three years ago today John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected 35th President of the United States by a margin so thin that a handful of votes cast in the opposite direction could have spelled victory for his opponent, then the Republican Vice-President, Richard M. Nixon.
Today this narrow victory margin still colors much of Kennedy's thinking as he tries to push an admittedly controversial legislative program through a balky Congress and, at the same time, load his political gums for a re-election campaign next year.
IN 1960 KENNEDY received 34-227,006 popular votes to Nixon's 34-108,546—a razor-blade difference of only 118,550 votes. Thus Kennedy stormed into the White House armed with something less than a powerful mandate.
Three years ago the world seemed much simpler to the victorious Democrat than it does today. As a candidate, he could charge into the windmills of domestic and international problems with a shining lance. Today, he has the final responsibility for these problems, and their solution is not a matter of campaign oratory, but tense nights on the telephone awaiting the latest word from South Viet Nam or the Berlin Autobahn.
HE SAID NIXON believed "peace can be achieved through conferences and commissions, through meetings and goodwill tours, through special missions and propaganda gimmicks."
In three years, the President has tried virtually every one of these same avenues to a more peaceful world community — and still he awakens most mornings to a new crisis somewhere along the jumbled frontier that sets off East and West in the so-called cold war.
On the eve of his 1960 election, speaking at Boston Garden on the night of Nov. 7, Kennedy accused the Republicans and particularly Nixon of following "the easy but fatal course of thinking that we can talk our way into a peaceful world."
Kennedy's problems at home three years after his personal victory might be regarded by some historians as more nettlesome than the hot-and-cold situation overseas.
HE DOES NOT have the freedom, for example, of former President Harry S. Truman in fighting basic programs through Congress. For most of his White House tenure, Truman faced a Republican Congress. Control of House and Senate today rests with the Democrats, the President's own party.
Thus he must practice a certain amount of moderation, if not restraint when he feels the urge to
lambaste a committee wherein a piece of pet administration legislation lies almost dormant. After all, the committee chairman is bound to be a Democrat of some stature and frontal attack by the President is not likely to improve chances of favorable committee action.
KENNEDY THEREFORE must walk softly and carry no stick, to paraphrase Theodore Roosevelt. His powers must be those of relatively gentle persuasion and salesmanship
His major legislative items this year involve civil rights, tax reduction and foreign aid. Anybody who listened to his 1960 campaign speeches knew that sooner or later in the first Kennedy term, measures of this sort would be put before the Congress.
Since the President is in no position to club the House and Senate into specific action, he must rely on talents of negotiation and public opinion. This is why his televised news conferences constitute a major part of his political arsenal. It also explains why he makes a number of jet-speed speaking trips away from Washington as he tries to generate public support for his legislative program.
Foreign students interested in spending a week-end, Dec. 14-15, in a Topeka home for hospitality see Dean Coan, 228 Strong.
At this moment, Kennedy appears to talk more realistically about the 1964 election battle than some of his followers. The President, himself, feels that he is in for a fight; that he does not regard re-election as automatic; that his popularity was bound to go down this year as he fought for controversial programs. This reflects what one of his associates was talking about the other day when asked when Kennedy would start campaigning for 1964.
NOVEMBER 8.1963
"He hasn't quit since 1960," the associate answered candidly.
Official Bulletin
Catholic Mass, 5 p.m. St. Lawrence Catholic Chapel, 1910 Stratford Road.
Friday Evening Services - 7-20 p.m.
Jordan Center, Office 917 Highland Drive,
Refreshments.
Episcopic Evening Prayer, 9:30 p.m.
Danforth.
Newman Couples, 8:30 p.m., St. Lawrence Catholic Student Center, 1910 Stratford Road. All Catholic married students invited.
TOMORROW (Saturday)
Catholic Masses, 6:45 a.m., 5 p.m. St.
Lawrence Catholic Chapel, 1910 Stratford Road. Confessions: 4-5 and 7-8 p.m.
SUNDAY
Catholic Masses 8 a.m. St. Lawrence
catholic church, 9:30 a.m.
and l. l. c. Fingerless gloves
Oread Friends Meeting, 10:30 a.m.
Dunedin church to the Quaker meeting for worship
cante, meeting for work.
SUA Chess Club, 2 p.m., Kansas Union.
WHATCHAMACALLIT
DANCE PLAY CARDS HAVE FUN
TONIGHT
9:00 P.M. - MIDNIGHT
-HASHINGER HALL-
Sponsored By Association of University Residence Halls
AD COURTESY OF ASC
PATRONIZE YOUR KANSAN ADVERTISERS