"People unworthy of high office are arrogantly on the march."

[Raven]

from "A Gift from Long Ago" by Bob Herbert NYT

That about says it all.

[MBS]

1. a wonderful oped overall .

A sad but dead-on accurate summary of our country's descent into madness and meanness since the 60's.

[opihimoimoi]

2. KnR..... :o)......w bush set the standard of incompetence...and smug face too

[geckosfeet]

3. looks interesting - a link? - found it. - great column

A Gift From Long Ago

It was a half-century ago this month that John F. Kennedy won the presidency in a thrilling and heart-stoppingly close election against Richard Nixon. You'd probably be surprised at the number of Americans who are clueless about when Kennedy ran: “It was 1970, right?” “Wasn't it in the '40s, soon after the war?” Or whom he ran against: “Eisenhower?”
Damon Winter/The New York Times

I've been surprised by the lack of media attention given to the golden anniversary of that pivotal campaign, one of the most celebrated of the entire post-World War II period. With Kennedy, the door to the great 1960s era opened a crack, and it would continue opening little by little until the Beatles flung it wide in 1964.

Kennedy's great gift was his capacity to inspire. His message as he traveled the country was that Americans could do better, that great things were undeniably possible, that obstacles were challenges to be overcome with hard work and sacrifice.

I don't think he would have known what to make of the America of today, where the messages coming from the smoldering ruins of public life are not just uninspiring, but demeaning: that we must hack away at the achievements of the past (Social Security, Medicare); that we cannot afford to rebuild the nation's aging infrastructure or establish a first-class public school system for all children; that we cannot bring an end to debilitating warfare, or establish a new era of clean energy, or put millions of jobless and underemployed Americans back to work.

And, presuming the NYT and Bob Hebert won't mind a slight bending of reasonable use law, this in my humble opionion is the money line.

We've become so used to aiming low that mediocrity is seen as a step up. We need to be reminded of what is possible.

edit: added last par