THE PRESIDENCY: Man of the New Frontier

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The Amalgam. It was this capacity for leadership that had driven Jack Kennedy. First came an amalgam of determination, perseverance and political savvy bred in him from the time of Pat Kennedy and Honey Fitz. To this was added the spirit of family pride and achievement instilled by Joe Kennedy. It was completed, in Jack Kennedy's case, by the realities of war, and by his maturing under the heavy pressures of the campaign.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy would enter office as the youngest President since Teddy Roosevelt and as the first Roman Catholic in the nation's history. All good Democrats—or nearly all—had come to the aid of the party. And who knew but that as the new sun rose on the morning after Election Day in a shabby ward of old Boston, some ancient, misty-eyed Irish pol thought he heard Honey Fitz shuffling a ghostly old-country jig and rasping out the strains of Sweet Adeline.

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