Dutton 
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“Incomparable Grace: JFK in the Presidency” (Dutton), by presidential historian Mark K. Updegrove, traces John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s years in the White House, including his final days leading up to a political fundraising trip in Texas.
Read an excerpt below, and don’t miss Erin Moriarty’s interview with Updegrove on “CBS Sunday Morning” August 10!
“Incomparable Grace: JFK in the Presidency” by Mark K. Updegrove
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Dallas
Occasionally, John Kennedy would consider what he would do after his presidency. “Oh, probably sell real estate,” he once joked when asked about it. “That’s the only thing I’m equipped to do.” Perhaps half-kiddingly, he suggested to Ben Bradlee that the two of them should buy the Washington Post. In more serious moments he mentioned becoming the president of Harvard or running for the Senate. Jackie suspected that she and her husband would have lived between Cambridge and New York, and that he would have occupied his time in the immediate years after leaving office by writing a book, planning his presidential library, and traveling the world, playing the role of “President of the West,” an international celebrity and sage voice on the issues of the day.
After two terms, JFK would have been a relatively youthful 51-years-old, making him the youngest former president since Theodore Roosevelt stepped down in 1909 at age 50—only to find himself restively pining away for the office he had willingly given up. Hungering to get back into the arena, TR made an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 1912. Perhaps anticipating the same kind of middle-aged restlessness and longing for lost power from her husband, Jackie told him she wished “they made a rule that would keep you here forever.” “Oh, no,” Kennedy said, “eight years is enough of this place.”
But it was clear to anyone around him that he loved every second of the job, and he intended to keep it until his two terms were up—and that would require earning reelection the following year. To that end, in the late afternoon of November 13, just under a year before Americans would go to the polls, Kennedy convened Bobby, brother-in-law Steve Smith, Kenny O’Donnell, Ted Sorenson, Larry O’Brien, DNC chairman John Bailey, party treasurer Richard McGuire, and director of the Census Bureau and political strategist Richard Scammon to begin formally taking aim at the challenges that…
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