struck by a paradox

Rise of the Center
and all:
check this:

[from journals of Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., a contemporary of JFK]
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September 20, 1961. The White House.

Dinner at the White House with Joe [Alsop, the columnist] and Susan Mary Alsop [his wife, a prominent Washington hostess]. The President was in excellent form -- very lively, pungent, and vigorous. I was delighted to see that he was particularly concerned with the role of the business community. He began by saying that he was struck by the paradox that, while labor leaders individually were often mediocre and selfish, labor as a body took generally enlightened positions on the great issues; while businessmen were often enlightened as individuals but invariably took hopeless positions on public issues. He said several times that he now understood FDR's attitude toward the business community.

May 14, 1962. The White House.

I forgot to record a remark of the President's last Friday. He was commenting on the Eisenhower press conference the day before. "The thing I liked best," he said, "was the picture of Eisenhower attacking medical care for the old under Social Security as 'socialized medicine' -- and then getting into his government limousine and heading out to Walter Reed."

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I could relate to the following entry -- it's so true of people sometimes, they like ya, then they don't, then cannot remember -- plus often something that happens in life reminds me of a movie or TV show or something...

March 26, 1960: on the campaign trail. Democratic Governors' Conference, Detroit.

Jack seemed tired but was obviously in good spirits. His lack of pretense was refreshing; for example, he kept answering ringing phones himself, and when a message as required he sat down and wrote it out.

He was quite funny on [Senator] Wayne Morse who had been very affable toward him earlier in the evening. Half the time, he said, Morse clapped him on the shoulder and congratulated him; the other half, he denounced him as a traitor to liberalism and an enemy of the working class.

It all reminded him, said Kennedy, of City Lights, and the millionaire who, when drunk, loaded Charlie Chaplin with gifts and insisted that he spend the night but, when sober, couldn't recognize him and threw him out of the house.

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