JFK responds to Truman's call for him to step aside in 1960

[John Corbett]

I was unaware that Truman had called for JFK to step aside as a candidate
right before 1960 convention. I knew JFK was opposed by the progressive
wing of the party but I didn't know that Truman was among them. This under
scores that JFK was the moderate candidate. At various times, Hubert
Humphrey, Adlai Stevenson, Stuart Symington, Wayne Morse, and LBJ were all
considered preferable to JFK by the progressives. JFK was the favorite
going into the convention but he hadn't yet clinched the nomination. He
and RFK still had some deal making to do in order to win a majority of
delegates. A first ballot nomination was not yet secured. Had it gone to
multiple ballots, there is a good chance another candidate would have been
the nominee. I think that is what LBJ was hoping for.

[Anthony Marsh]

Post by John Corbett
http://youtu.be/2B5WmdWGJco
I was unaware that Truman had called for JFK to step aside as a candidate
right before 1960 convention. I knew JFK was opposed by the progressive
wing of the party but I didn't know that Truman was among them. This under

Not so much. You can't make youeelf look better by calling JFK a
conservative.

Post by John Corbett
scores that JFK was the moderate candidate. At various times, Hubert
Humphrey, Adlai Stevenson, Stuart Symington, Wayne Morse, and LBJ were all
considered preferable to JFK by the progressives. JFK was the favorite
going into the convention but he hadn't yet clinched the nomination. He

Nonsesense. Who won the nomination and then election?

Post by John Corbett
and RFK still had some deal making to do in order to win a majority of
delegates. A first ballot nomination was not yet secured. Had it gone to
multiple ballots, there is a good chance another candidate would have been
the nominee. I think that is what LBJ was hoping for.

[John Corbett]

Post by Anthony Marsh

Post by John Corbett
http://youtu.be/2B5WmdWGJco
I was unaware that Truman had called for JFK to step aside as a candidate
right before 1960 convention. I knew JFK was opposed by the progressive
wing of the party but I didn't know that Truman was among them. This under

Not so much. You can't make youeelf look better by calling JFK a
conservative.

I didn't. I called him a moderate. There are online dictionaries available
if you don't understand the difference between those terms.

You keep trying to deny the fact that JFK did not represent the liberal
wing of the party who would have preferred any of the candidates I
mentioned below. You want to pretend JFK was the liberal icon that Teddy
later became. He wasn't. There are many similarities between 1960 and
2020. There was and is a sizeable liberal faction in the Democrat Party
but in the end the moderate won largely on the strength of the primaries.
In 1960 there were far few delegates chosen through the primaries which is
why JFK did not have a majority of delegates going into the convention and
still had work to do after the opening gavel.

Post by Anthony Marsh

Post by John Corbett
scores that JFK was the moderate candidate. At various times, Hubert
Humphrey, Adlai Stevenson, Stuart Symington, Wayne Morse, and LBJ were all
considered preferable to JFK by the progressives. JFK was the favorite
going into the convention but he hadn't yet clinched the nomination. He

Nonsesense. Who won the nomination and then election?

That question is irrelevant to the point I made. JFK went into the
convention lacking enough committed delegates to give him the necessary
majority. He still had some work to do during the convention.

You can read about it here and inform yourself about the actual facts of
the 1960 nomination process:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_Democratic_National_Convention

"As the Democratic Convention opened, Kennedy was far in the lead, but was
still seen as being just short of the delegate total he needed to win."

Post by Anthony Marsh

Post by John Corbett
and RFK still had some deal making to do in order to win a majority of
delegates. A first ballot nomination was not yet secured. Had it gone to
multiple ballots, there is a good chance another candidate would have been
the nominee. I think that is what LBJ was hoping for.

[Steve M. Galbraith]

Post by Anthony Marsh

Post by John Corbett
http://youtu.be/2B5WmdWGJco
I was unaware that Truman had called for JFK to step aside as a candidate
right before 1960 convention. I knew JFK was opposed by the progressive
wing of the party but I didn't know that Truman was among them. This under

Not so much. You can't make youeelf look better by calling JFK a
conservative.

Post by John Corbett
scores that JFK was the moderate candidate. At various times, Hubert
Humphrey, Adlai Stevenson, Stuart Symington, Wayne Morse, and LBJ were all
considered preferable to JFK by the progressives. JFK was the favorite
going into the convention but he hadn't yet clinched the nomination. He

Nonsesense. Who won the nomination and then election?

Post by John Corbett
and RFK still had some deal making to do in order to win a majority of
delegates. A first ballot nomination was not yet secured. Had it gone to
multiple ballots, there is a good chance another candidate would have been
the nominee. I think that is what LBJ was hoping for.

Key figures in the liberal/progressive wing of the party were opposed to
JFK's nomination. Period. We've repeatedly cited statements by them - by
Eleanor Roosevelt among others - voicing their opposition to him. They
were critical of his support for McCarthy, they didn't like Joe Sr.'s
support of pre-war appeasement of Hitler, they were wary of a Catholic
president, and they thought JFK was too young and unproven to be
president. Truman came out the day of the convention and explicitly said
JFK should withdraw. If that's not opposing his nomination then what
would?

You see to think that because JFK got the nomination that that proves the
liberal wing wasn't against him. That's illogical and a non sequitur. Here
is Robert Dallek's summary of the liberal opposition: "Most liberals
subscribed to the view of Kennedy as an ambitious but superficial playboy
with little more to recommend him than his good looks and charm. On none
of the issues most important to them - McCarthyism, civil rights and labor
unions -- had Jack been an outspoken advocate. As Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
said later of liberal antagonism to Jack, 'Kennedy seemed too cool and
ambitious, too bored by the conditional reflexes of stereotyped
liberalism, too much a young man in a hurry...' Joe Kennedy's reputation
as a robber baron and prewar appeaser of Nazi Germany also troubled
liberals. And despite numerous examples of political divergences between
father and son, they saw Jack as little more than a surrogate for Joe,
whom they believed to have been planning to buy the White House for one of
his children since at least 1950." Source: "An Unfinished Life", pg. 269.

The liberal wing of the party simply did not want him as their party's
nominee.

[John Corbett]

Post by Steve M. Galbraith

Post by Anthony Marsh

Post by John Corbett
http://youtu.be/2B5WmdWGJco
I was unaware that Truman had called for JFK to step aside as a candidate
right before 1960 convention. I knew JFK was opposed by the progressive
wing of the party but I didn't know that Truman was among them. This under

Not so much. You can't make youeelf look better by calling JFK a
conservative.

Post by John Corbett
scores that JFK was the moderate candidate. At various times, Hubert
Humphrey, Adlai Stevenson, Stuart Symington, Wayne Morse, and LBJ were all
considered preferable to JFK by the progressives. JFK was the favorite
going into the convention but he hadn't yet clinched the nomination. He

Nonsesense. Who won the nomination and then election?

Post by John Corbett
and RFK still had some deal making to do in order to win a majority of
delegates. A first ballot nomination was not yet secured. Had it gone to
multiple ballots, there is a good chance another candidate would have been
the nominee. I think that is what LBJ was hoping for.

Key figures in the liberal/progressive wing of the party were opposed to
JFK's nomination. Period. We've repeatedly cited statements by them - by
Eleanor Roosevelt among others - voicing their opposition to him. They
were critical of his support for McCarthy, they didn't like Joe Sr.'s
support of pre-war appeasement of Hitler, they were wary of a Catholic
president, and they thought JFK was too young and unproven to be
president. Truman came out the day of the convention and explicitly said
JFK should withdraw. If that's not opposing his nomination then what
would?
You see to think that because JFK got the nomination that that proves the
liberal wing wasn't against him. That's illogical and a non sequitur. Here
is Robert Dallek's summary of the liberal opposition: "Most liberals
subscribed to the view of Kennedy as an ambitious but superficial playboy
with little more to recommend him than his good looks and charm. On none
of the issues most important to them - McCarthyism, civil rights and labor
unions -- had Jack been an outspoken advocate. As Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
said later of liberal antagonism to Jack, 'Kennedy seemed too cool and
ambitious, too bored by the conditional reflexes of stereotyped
liberalism, too much a young man in a hurry...' Joe Kennedy's reputation
as a robber baron and prewar appeaser of Nazi Germany also troubled
liberals. And despite numerous examples of political divergences between
father and son, they saw Jack as little more than a surrogate for Joe,
whom they believed to have been planning to buy the White House for one of
his children since at least 1950." Source: "An Unfinished Life", pg. 269.
The liberal wing of the party simply did not want him as their party's
nominee.

I wonder if they had coalesced around one candidate early on if they could
have denied him the nomination. This is not unlike 2020 where Biden ended
up having the moderate lane all to himself while Sanders and Warren fought
over the progressive vote. I find it significant that moderate candidates
Klobuchar and Buttigieg dropped out before Super Tuesday while Warren
waited until after Super Tuesday.