a boring guy like me

On January 2, 1960, Arthur Schlesinger wrote in his journal,

---- Jack Kennedy asked the Galbraiths and ourselves to dine with him at Locke-Ober following his telecast with Mrs. Roosevelt.  Earlier in the day he had announced his candidacy in a press conference in Washington.  At dinner...I had the sense that he feels himself increasingly hemmed in as a result of a circumstance over which he has no control -- his religion; and he inevitably tends toward gloom and irritation when he considers how this circumstance may deny him what he thinks his talents and efforts have earned.

I asked him what he considered the main sources of his own appeal.  He said obviously there were no great differences between himself and Humphrey on issues, that it came down to a question of personality and image.  "Hubert is too hot for the present mood of the people.  He gets people too excited, too worked up.  What they want today is a more boring, monotonous personality, like me."

Jack plainly has no doubt about his capacity to beat Nixon and can hardly wait to take him on.

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{Journals, 1952 - 2000.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
THE PENGUIN PRESS,
New York, 2007}

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