Reflections of a stormy petrel

Kennedy and Goldwater were very much of one kind, in so far as a bunch of Boston Irish can be with a Western WASP. Long after his death, Goldwater (in the time that led up to Watergate) told someone how Kennedy once told him: "So you want this fucking job?" and grinned. (Goldwater's point being that he could never see this kind of frank, man-to-man exchange with Nixon, even though he should have had a lot more in common politicallly with Nixon than with Jack Kennedy.) For that matter, the Kennedys were always friendly with Joe McCarthy and have never, to this day, seen fit to condemn him by word or deed. This kind of somewhat macho politician does not seem so thick on the ground today.