Kennedy’s Election

Ten days ago marked the 50th anniversary of the election of John F. Kennedy as president of the United States in one of the most contested and controversial elections of the country.

On the night of Tuesday Nov. 8, on the Hyannis Port family farm, Kennedy’s supporters all wore defeated expressions on their faces. The next day, at 3:30 in the morning, the defeated candidate, tired from the intense campaigning that had just finished and under the influence of a significant quantity of drugs meant to alleviate his frequent pains — especially back pain — went to bed.

At 8:45 on Wednesday morning his brother Robert woke him up with the news that John was the new president of the nation. The difference between Kennedy and Nixon in popular votes was 112,000 (49.7 percent versus 45.5 percent*), and within the Electoral College the votes were 303 representatives against 219.

The North American country had just elected the youngest president in the history of the nation, but the doubt still remained that there was electoral fraud, not unlike what happens in banana republics.

Ever since that week the election results of Illinois, one of the last states to reveal their official counts, has been highly contested. The American Noriega** was Mayor Richard Daley, who brought up the number of people who voted in Chicago. Is that why he is smeared? But Kennedy was given a benefit in ten other states, where he achieved differences between one and two thousand votes in each one.

Anyway, Kennedy was elected and, in general, enjoyed positive press coverage. But now his figure is different. His romantic dalliances from the time that he was a senator of Massachusetts have been brought to light. Ever since then his cars were well known in motels. He was very fortunate because besides having such a gorgeous wife like Jacqueline, he regularly bathed in the White House swimming pool with Marilyn, and these meetings were not exactly arranged in order to discuss the Monroe Doctrine. Kennedy was also an expert in launching rockets, among other things.

If Kennedy were alive today, he would have defended himself by saying that the fraud that helped him was all done behind his back … that’s why it hurt him so much.

*Editor’s Note: The actual percentages for the popular vote were 49.7 percent for Kennedy and 49.6 percent for Nixon.

**Editor’s Note: Carlos Augusto Noriega is a Colombian politician who was accused of altering voting results in the 1970 presidential election.