"John F. Kennedy is floundering in a sea of troubles," wrote New York Times's Washington Columnist Arthur Krock. "He has reflected the uncertainty of what to do about it that Hamlet expressed in the famous mixed metaphor of the soliloquy. It is this shifting of tactics and moderation that has encouraged some of his opponents to believe they can retire him from the presidency after one term."
Absolutely Wrong. Strong criticism of the President has echoed through the daily press throughout the past month. His economy report evoked sneers: "Many words, little substance," said the Dallas Times Herald. His elevation of Labor Secretary Arthur Goldberg to the U.S. Supreme Court, while greeted with approval in most quarters, outraged the Memphis Commercial Appeal ("a cynical payoff") and scared Columnist David Lawrence ("What a shiver of apprehension passes through the country").
As for his inability to ram his legislative program through a stubborn Congress, New York Herald Tribune Columnist Roscoe Drummond summed up: "There is no doubt in my mind that Senator Kennedy was absolutely sincere in telling the American people in the 1960 campaign that if they would elect a Democratic President and give leadership to a Democratic Congress, all would go well. And he was absolutely wrong."
What's Cooking? The principal attacks on the President came after his do-nothing-now statement on a Soviet-armed Cuba. "APPEASEMENT," cried the Oklahoma City Daily Oklahoman. Wrote Columnist Henry J. Taylor: "If the steel companies could evoke wrath from Mr. Kennedy, why cannot Cuba? It is high time the American people forced a better policy than 'Let the dust settle/ "