D Politicians, Pundits, and Stars 223
would perceive a genuineness, and in every video I have seen of
Nixon—until the end when he morphed into a guarded, dark
individual—that’s what I see. The Nixon who ran against John F.
Kennedy, served in the White House before Watergate, and opened
doors with China projected congruency and truth, and was often
rather unsophisticated about it. His strategy was What you See is
WhatYou Get.
Now turn the prejudice around so that it works in favor of the
candidate. During that presidential campaign between JFK and
Nixon, the Kennedy clan moved way out front into the limelight to
help his cause. His brothers were out there, and even his mother
took the spotlight, ostensibly dragging Jacqueline into it, as well.
They were all Holy Warriors, except for Jacqueline.
One interview that featured Rose and Jacqueline Kennedy
aimed to bring the American people “into the living room” during
the campaign. How that ever worked to convince average Ameri-
cans that JFK should sit in the White House is testimony to our
naïveté as a nation. We are now so jaded by “candid” television
interviews with candidates and their families that we expect them
to be better actors, to decorate the set so that the majority of view-
ers will find it appealing, and to speak in the language of typical
Americans. Almost no one else in America lived the way the
Kennedys lived, but millions of people looked up to that family and
carried a bias that their “royal” presence was a good thing for
America—that it could lift us up. After all, if our most super-typical
was so noble, what does it say about us?