Of Stolen Elections and Unpopular War

What person comes to your mind instantly when i say these things - Stolen Election, Unpopular War, Failed Invasion and super duper rich family background?
George W Bush, right?

And now a follow up question. Which loosing Presidential candidate of an allegedly 'stolen election' said this - "I would have challenged it. But it would cause a constitutional crisis, hurt America in the eyes of the world, and tear the country apart." That would be Al Gore, right?

Hold on to your thoughts while we dig in a little.I bring this up because I am currently reading an interesting biography of Mayor Daley's and to me it is quite revealing.

Anyways, lets go back 50 years in 1960. An election year. JFK was the presidential candidate and was loosing in all opinion polls that November. But one guy on his side had some different plans. His name was Mayor Daley of Chicago, IL. Daley had all the right connections in IL, including, and "allegedly" I may add, the dreaded Chicago mafia of 60s. Guess how he used it? Take a look here

JFK won the election by the thinnest margin in history ever. This margin was a record that has not been broken even today. Take a guess what side Illinois went in 1960?
The loosing candidate who I quoted above was Nixon, by the way.

Now about unpopular war. But before that here are some heart wrenching statistics - 3,50,000 casualties and 55,000 deaths in 10 long years of a single war. Thats what Vietnam war did to America. Not to mention two million Vietnamese lives lost. Guess who began the exercise for going to the war?

Now coming to third point. Failed invasion.

Before the Cuban Missile crisis, there was a plan to invade Cuba and blow up it's leadership. The planned invasion failed. Guess who took the responsibility?

And last but not the least. A powerful family with connections to the rich and famous. This added to the murder, oops sorry, the suicide of Monroe ..ahem.. tells quite a story isn't it?

I guess all the four things I started with can be attributed to JFK. No?

But for all the above, I must add this. That he was a popular guy and if I was there in 1960s America I would have certainly been impressed. If by nothing else, the power of the Kennedys. This dude JFK was the blue eyed boy of the entire media. Not to mention his strong stance on Civil Rights movement which made him popular throughout the world. And deservedly so.

In the end he was bumped off. He made enemies with quite a few, you'd think? Cuba, Russia, Hollywood, Mafia, CIA....

P.S : My earlier post on JFK - the movie