Public Resource: The Longines Chronoscope: U.S. Representative John F. Kennedy in 1952

Source:Public Resource- U.S. Representative John F. Kennedy (Democrat, Massachusetts)

"LONGINES CHRONOSCOPE WITH REP. JOHN F. KENNEDY - National Archives and Records Administration 1952-08-22 - ARC Identifier 95777 / Local Identifier LW-LW-132 - TELEVISION INTERVIEW: William Bradford Huie and Harold Levine talk with Rep. John F. Kennedy (Democrat, Massachusetts) on senatorial campaign between him and Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. (Republican, Massachusetts). DVD copied by IASL Master Scanner Katie Filbert." 

From Public Resource

John F. Kennedy, at this point was Representative John F. Kennedy who was completing his third and last term in the House of Representatives. And was running for Senate against a moderate-conservative Republican Senator Henry Cabot Lodge. 

Jack Kennedy, was only thirty-five at this point and would become one of the youngest people ever elected to the U.S. Senate at thirty-five. JFK, served a total of fourteen-years in Congress (both in the House and Senate) and yet he was forty-three when he left Congress for the presidency in 1961. He is someone who wanted to move up quickly in American politics and not stay in one office for very long.

The House, was too small of a platform especially if your last name is Kennedy. So it’s a little hard to believe that JFK would’ve been someone who would’ve spent 20-30 years in the House even if it meant being Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, or serving in the Democratic Leadership. 

I think JFK like his brother Ted, would’ve made a terrific U.S. Senator if he wanted it and served four, or five terms in the Senate after the House and completed his Congressional service and even public service in the Senate. And perhaps would’ve ended up chairing a couple of committees and maybe even becoming Democratic Leader in the Senate.

Jack Kennedy, didn’t have a very good record in the House. He was bored there and had a hard time dealing with being one of 435 Representatives there and a back bencher at that. And wasn’t a very serious Representative who missed a lot of floor votes and committee hearings and not known for passing any legislation. 

JFK wasn’t much better as a Senator at least in his first term. But he writes a book Profiles in Courage in 1956, he marries Jacqueline Kennedy and his name is always in the news and starts to draw a serious following in the Democratic Party and becomes serious as a U.S. Senator. Which is how his name starts to get floated around as a possible presidential candidate. Who almost becomes Adlai Stevenson’s vice presidential nominee in 1956. And after that he when he puts most of his focus into becoming President of the United States.