CSPAN’s web site has a link to John F. Kennedy’s September 1960 speech to ministers in Houston about his Catholicism. It’s fascinating, especially the Q & A section, which is pretty bruising.
Relatedly, here’s a news story regarding Mitt Romney’s decision (for now, anyway) not to give an LDS version of “the Speech.”
Posted by Rick Garnett on November 12, 2007 at 11:26 AM
Comments
Apparently, Kennedy’s campaign people decided to take the necessary gamble of broadcasting the speech to the Houston minister’s on live television.
Part of the calculation was that on television, the questioners would appear hostile and reveal their anti-Catholic prejudice (without Kennedy’s having to condemn them for their bigotry), while Kennedy would look confident and assured. The gamble paid off handsomely.
Indeed, the most remarkable part of the event is that Q&A session. The Syllabus of Errors! And to think this was not quite 50 years ago.
Posted by: Richard Starkey | Nov 12, 2007 8:28:57 PM
Who bruises who in that Q&A? JFK is very impressive. Makes you wonder how the current president would hold up answering similar questions from a room of ministers not of his own faith and perhaps hostile to it.
Posted by: oxaccu | Nov 12, 2007 6:27:43 PM