The More Failure You Can Accept, The

Medicare, Getting Through That In The '60s, After Kennedy's Assassination, Where There Was Such An Emotional Desire To Do Something To Carry On His Agenda.

I Look Back To The Great Depression, And What Roosevelt Was Able To Do In Very Difficult Times, To Get Social Security Through Back In The Time When It Was Seen As - Well, It Wasn't What It Is Today. It Was Sort Of A Last-ditch, If You Really Need It, You Got It, But, Today, It's Much More A Part Of Your Retirement Program.

I Tried To Talk To The Graduates Who Haven't Figured What They're Going To Do Next. The Kids Who Are Heading In Medical School Or Law School, They've Got Pretty Much Figured Where They're Headed In Life. But There Are So Many Kids Out There, That Are Just Going, They're Still Kids. They've Always Been Promoted From Grade To Grade.

How Much He Was Shaped By Being In The Hospital So Much As A Kid. Because He Was Sick, He Was A Reader, And Because He Was A Reader, Kennedy Had Heroes. Because He Had Heroes, He Went Into Politics. [kennedy Liked Sir Walter Scott, King Arthur's Knights, And Biographies Of Political Leaders.] If He Hadn't Been Sick, He Might Have Been Like Everybody Else In The Family, A Jock.

It Was Fascinating What A Total Interest He [john F. Kennedy] Had In His Tradecraft Of Being A Politician. I Didn't Realize Before That He Was Working On His Memoirs All Along, How He Ran For Congress, That Sort Of Thing.