It's interesting the folks today who were serious Goldwater supporters back then...

>He was VERY eloquent. But he failed in a lot of respects: He paid lip service to equal rights but it was left to Johnson to actually push legislation. NASA very skillfully leveraged his speech with his death to secure funding for the moon....doubt it would have happened otherwise or at least in the same timeframe.
>
>If he had lived....hmmmm. His approval ratings (I believe) were pretty low in November 63 ... if I recall they were at 38% or so (check Gallup). He had a reputation of talking a good game but not delivering...but when he was killed his talking ponts became mandates so...
>
>The '64 election would have been Kennedy versus Goldwater. Johnson cruised in '64 partly from the Kennedy martyrdom and partly from a great media campaign by Bill Moyer.
>
>Would Kennedy have beaten Goldwater? Probably. Goldwater was a fiery libertarian-conservative who was the right man at the wrong time.
>
>But what would have happened then? The Great Society? Nope. The Civil Rights acts? Not without Johnson's inside knowledge of the House and horsetrading. More lip service IMHO. Kennedy was scared to death of fracturing the Democratic Party by taking a hard stance. Johnson just saw right and wrong and didn't give a cr*p.
>
>Vietnam? Nope. JFK would not have committed the troops beyond advisors.
>
>It's a terrible thing to say but perhaps Kennedy served the country best in matyrdom. If he had lived a lot of great things would not have happened but...maybe....a great mistake would not have been made either (assuming George Kennan had dropped dead).
>
>
>>I put the JFK quote in my signature and then went looking for an audio or video of the whole speech. Whoa, did I get my money's worth. He was mostly before my time and I have no memory of hearing him speak when he was alive. His assassination is the first public event I can remember. Being sent home on the school bus early, none of us exactly sure why. But you can see why he inspired so many people. The Peace Corps -- new college grads going to the ends of the earth to do good. "I want to see a man on the moon in 10 years." He had the power to move people. It was not as partisan then. (My father, who never voted for a Democrat before Obama, came home from work upset and angry. "They should hang him by his thumbs," he said). These days JFK would be called a centrist. He was tough on foreign policy and hesitant to hit the racist south too hard.
>>
>>Enough of me. This is worth half an hour of your time IMO.
>>
>>http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkamericanuniversityaddress.html