Good morning, it's Friday, July 15, 2022, the day of the week when I pass along a quotation intended to be uplifting or enlightening. Last week, I used an aspirational line from President Biden, with an assist from John F. Kennedy. This morning, I'll reprise some of JFK's own words, with set-up from Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton. It sounds random, but there's a common thread, as you'll see.
Beware the Ides of March, the soothsayer warned Julius Caesar (at least in Shakespeare's telling), but in U.S. politics, it's the middle day on this month that bears watching. On July 15, 1960, John F. Kennedy accepted the Democratic Party nomination for president in Los Angeles.
On the same date four years later, with President Kennedy martyred, Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater was nominated for president by the Republicans in San Francisco.
On July 15, 1971, Richard Nixon announced he would visit the People's Republic of China. On July 15, 1979, Jimmy Carter delivered a televised national address lamenting what he termed a "crisis of confidence" in America.
And on July 15, 1992, at the Democratic National Convention in New York, Bill Clinton accepted his party's nomination.
All these speeches remind us that the hope of new beginnings can be tempered by tragedy, partisanship, or even the simple vagaries of life.
World War II veterans Barry Goldwater and Jack Kennedy were friends in the Senate. They mused about campaigning together in 1964 -- while running against each other -- in a congenial and civil series of debates. By the time that campaign arrived, however, Kennedy was gone and Goldwater was incongruously extolling the virtues of "extremism" in San Francisco. Goldwater's campaign self-immolated, while giving rise to Ronald Reagan.
Richard Nixon surprised the world by going to China, but also by squandering his own presidency. Jimmy Carter was the corrective who understood the lessons of both Watergate and China. Carter's personal probity was beyond question and also he understood a president's obligation to search for peace.
But Carter grasped less well a U.S. president's duty to project strength abroad while instilling optimism here at home. The upshot was the so-called "malaise" speech of July 15, 1979, and the event that undermined the speech: Carter's sacking of six cabinet members.
Bill Clinton knew Carter well, met John F. Kennedy as a young man, and was savvy enough to invoke Ronald Reagan's name positively while campaigning -- and to consult with both Carter and Nixon while president. Yet he managed the neat trick of generating impeachment proceedings against himself (like Nixon) for emulating the sins of Nixon's nemesis (Kennedy).
I'll close by leaving you with some of Kennedy's ringing words from 55 years ago today, a call to service that still resonates:
We stand today on the edge of a New Frontier -- the frontier of the 1960s -- a frontier of unknown opportunities and perils -- a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats.
Woodrow Wilson's "New Freedom" promised our nation a new political and economic framework. Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" promised security and succor to those in need. But the "New Frontier" of which I speak is not a set of promises, it is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intend to ask of them. It appeals to their pride, not to their pocketbook -- it holds out the promise of more sacrifice instead of more security.
And that's our quote of the week.
Carl M. Cannon is the Washington bureau chief for RealClearPolitics. Reach him on Twitter @CarlCannon.