46 I Can Read You Like a Book
the media-savvy politician. Now, not only the verbal, but also the
vocal portion of a president’s speech could be experienced
first-hand.
This time of “doing without” for Americans offered fertile
ground for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt when he came up
with the New Deal and, through radio, spoke to average Americans
in their own homes about entitlement. Could anyone become more
super-typical than a president with a plan for you in your own living
room? Without an image of FDR in the wheelchair, Americans
heard only his message. Still, photos provided the only source of
body language to most people. He was the alpha in our living rooms
telling Americans how much they deserved—just for living. A new
sense of entitlement flourished as the new media broadcasting the
images became ubiquitous.
After Roosevelt held an omnipresent power with his voice, John
F. Kennedy held it with his face. He personally, but also through the
legacy of his presidency, engendered a lively sense of entitlement.
Is there any doubt as to why Americans were inconsolable when
they watched their quintessential alpha die at the hands of some
nondescript upstart one fall afternoon? This nation with the percep-
tion of super power had its most alpha male destroyed by a sub-
typical hiding in a storage room. Such ignominy was inconceivable.
I believe it is the reason why JFK’s death still fuels the greatest
conspiracy theories in the United States today.
Returning to the historical context, people who endured sus-
tained denial of the basic rights of the typical, as well as their